Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)
by Liquid
Summary: I have once again been stripped of my power, and this time I must face Resident Evil 2. This is a re-write of the third story that I did on this site back in 2003, so please read and review.
1. Ch 1 Happy Birthday

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual-Shock)**

**Chapter 1: Happy Birthday**

"Happy Birthday to me." Liquid sang happily as he got out of bed. "Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday dear Liquid, now let's see what's on TV."

Wearing only his bathrobe and boxershorts, he walked into the living room of his one bedroom apartment, and sat down on the couch. The remote control for his old tube-television was sitting on the small coffee table in front of him along with a half-finished beer from the previous night, so he picked up these two treasured items, and took a drink as he pushed the power button.

"This summer from _New Line Cinema_, comes possibly the best film ever made." The Narrator's voice announced. "Get ready for_ 'Ow, My Balls!' _starring Justin Bieber. Literally 120 minutes of nothing but Justin Bieber getting kicked in the balls during funny situations. Already nominated for twenty Academy Awards, critics are calling it_ 'the best shit to ever hit the big screen'_. It's_ 'Ow, My Balls!' _starring Justin Bieber, and yes... there's gonna be a sequel."

"I'll have to check that out." Liquid said to himself as he changed the channel.

Suddenly the window behind the TV shattered, making Liquid jump and spill his beer all over himself as the TV was knocked forward by what looked like a brick. The screen busted when it hit the floor, and sparks shot out of the frame for a second, leaving it safe to say that there would be no more TV watching for awhile.

"God damn it!" He yelled as he put on some slippers and jumped up.

Walking over to investigate, he found that there was in fact a brick sitting on the back of the TV, and when he picked it up, there was a simple message written in yellow marker on the back that said:

_COME OUTSIDE._

Grumbling with anger as he walked toward the door, Liquid wondered who would dare do such a thing on his birthday. It was probably some of the punk kids around the neighborhood, or maybe his landlord coming to bitch at him again about his rent being three months late. There were a dozen things that he expected to see when he walked out the door, but a beautiful brand-new Jeep sitting in his parking space was not one of them.

It had a shiny grey and black paintjob, with an open top, leather seats, and 4-wheel drive. Honestly it was one of the most beautiful things that he had ever seen, and the next thing he wondered was what it was doing there. The keys were in the ignition, the gastank was full, and there was a pretty bow wrapped around the steering wheel as if it were a present.

"Happy Birthday, Liquid!" Xing Li shouted as he jumped out from behind it.

Liquid cried out in shock as he stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. Then he reached behind his back and took out a pistol from the waistband of his boxers. Keeping it aimed at Xing's head, Liquid slowly got to his feet, and now he was in an awkward situation.

"What are you doing here, Xing?" He demanded.

"What do you mean?" Xing replied innocently. "I just came over to wish my bestest buddy a happy birthday, and to give you this present. Yes, this beautiful Jeep Wrangler is a reproduction of the same one made back in '98, and with it I'm sure that it will take you to _exactly_ what you deserve."

With that, Xing threw back his head in diabolical laughter, only to stop a few seconds later and walk away. Liquid waited for several minutes before he stopped pointing the pistol in the direction that Xing had walked away in, and then he decided to check out the jeep. It didn't appear to have any bombs or traps hooked up to the seats of under the frame, so he relaxed a bit as he put the pistol back and got into the driver's seat.

It was certainly a nice Jeep, and maybe Xing was just trying to confuse him by making an offer of peace. So he put his seatbelt on, and turned the key while cringing in expectation of an explosion. However, nothing happened as the engine came to life, so he put it into gear, and ran over one of the neighbor kid's bicycles as he backed out of the parking spot.

So far nothing had happened, so he put it into drive, and drove out of the apartment complex, heading for the highway where he could actually see what his new vehicle could do. The highway was only a few minutes from where he lived, so soon he took the entrance ramp and easily passed the other cars once he got to the 75 mph zone.

"Not bad, Xing, not bad." He said as he looked down at the radio. "Now how about some music?"

As he reached down to mess with the radio, he failed to notice passing under the sign that read:

_RACCOON CITY_

_NEXT EXIT_

He had barely turned the radio on, when suddenly some asshole in a BMW swerved toward him, forcing Liquid into the exit lane while giving him the finger. He could've probably forced the car away, but he didn't want to damage his new Jeep, so he was forced to take the exit, and as he got onto the smaller road he realized that it had gotten a lot darker outside.

The sun was quickly moving across the horizon as streetlights came on around him, and he had to turn on his headlights as night fell a few seconds later. There were no other cars on the road as he entered a more heavily populated area with bigger buildings, and he was looking for a place to make a U-turn, when he spotted something on the road ahead.

"Aw, Christ." He said as he slowed down.

There was a woman lying in the middle of the street with some birds sitting on her, but they flew away once Liquid's headlights illuminated them. Yep, there was a woman lying motionless in the middle of the street, and of course the people didn't give a shit, and... wait a second... where were the people? Liquid looked around in all directions, but there was no one in sight. All the lights inside the buildings were on, but there was no one walking around, no conversations could be heard... not even any loud annoying music was being played by teenagers.

Leaving the engine and lights on, Liquid got out of the jeep and slowly moved toward the woman. She remained motionless as he approached, and when he knelt down next to her, it appeared that she had some kind of wounds across a lot of her body. Well, it looked like it now fell to him to call an ambulance, so he reached into her pocket and took out her wallet in order to find her identification.

"Hey, twenty bucks." He said as he took the bill out. "Well, it's not like _you'll_ need it any time soon."

He didn't have any pockets, so he was figuring out a place to put it, when the woman made a groaning sound as she started to move. Then there were some more sounds behind him as some people began to slowly come into view. This was followed by even more people coming from the other direction, and it seemed that the residents of this place had finally taken notice of what was happening.

"Hey, there was some guy trying to rob this poor girl." He quickly said while discreetoyl dropping the $20. "Don't worry, I scared the little scumbag off... I tell you, some people have no class, you know?"

The approaching people said nothing as they got closer, and Liquid began to notice that something was wrong about this whole thing. They seemed to be shambling more than walking, and no words were being said, just a series of groans. It was looking like he should probably get out of there, so he started toward his Jeep, when one of them came into the light.

He had bite marks on his throat and chest, and his eyes were glazed over as he shambled forward. A zombie? How the hell could there be a zombie. More of them were approaching now, so he started to back away, when he noticed something. There was a resturant across the street, and on the top, in big illuminated lettering were the words:

_RACCOON CITY DINER_

"Oh no." Liquid said as he backed away.

"Oh _yes_." Xing's voice suddenly crackled from the Jeep's radio. "Happy Birthday, Liquid... welcome to _Resident Evil 2_."


	2. Ch 2 Claire

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 2: Claire**

So there he was, surrounded by zombies, unable to reach his Jeep, wearing nothing but a bathrobe and boxers, and with nothing but a pistol that had no extra ammo to defend himself with. The only clear path of escape was the side door of the diner that he had spotted earlier, and there was no point in threatening zombies with a gun if he didn't intend to waste ammo, so he ran for it, reaching the door just in time for it to strike him in the mouth as it was kicked open from inside.

"Aw, funky butt-lovin!" He yelled with his free hand over his mouth.

He stumbled back, and looked at his hand to see if there was any blood. There wasn't, although that hit stung like all hell, and he looked up to take revenge on whatever zombie had done this to him, but stopped at what he saw. There was not a zombie standing in the doorway, but a beautiful girl in a red vest and shorts.

"Uh, hi." He said.

He would've said more, but at that moment he was grabbed by one of the approaching zombies behind him. He screamed as it pulled him backwards, and the only thing he could do was aim his pistol over his shoulder, and shoot it in the head. The zombie collapsed, and Liquid stumbled sideways from the pain of firing a weapon right next to his head.

He fell against the nearby wall as his ears were ringing painfully, but there was no time to recover, since the other zombies were closing in as well. He shot two more in the head, which opened up another path down the alley, so he ran for it. Thankfully the zombies were much slower than he was, and his ears had stopped ringing by the time he reached the other end.

The girl from the diner had followed him this far, and his head was just beginning to feel better, when she cried out in horror at what was waiting for them. There were more zombies, dozens of them coming down the street from both directions, and there were only twelve bullets in Liquid's pistol. He was looking around for another way to escape, when he saw a parked police car across the street.

"There!" He yelled as he pointed to it.

The two of them ran over to the car, and the girl ran to the passenger side as he tried to open the driver-side door. Of course it was locked, and the zombies were closing in, so he was forced to use another bullet to shatter the window, which thankfully wasn't bulletproof. He then jumped in and unlocked the other door for her.

"Go!" She yelled once she was in.

By some miracle, the keys were in the ignition, so he started it up, put it in drive, and proceeded to plow his way through the approaching zombies. After getting through the initial horde, there were still a bunch wandering around outside, but the road appeared to be open for now, so this gave both of them a chance to relax.

"Looks like we're ok for now." He said. "I'm Liquid, by the way. What's your name?"

"Claire." She replied. "Claire Redfield. I came here to visit my brother, but instead those things came after me when I stopped for some food... I guess they caught _you_ in bed, huh?"

She giggled as she looked at what he was wearing, but he was more concerned with her outfit. This girl was _hot_, as in, _holy crap _hot, and getting forced into a terrible situation with a beautiful girl was usually a blessing in disguise, so it was time to turn on some of the old Liquid charm.

"Well, don't you worry, babe." He said confidently as he put his arm around her. "Beleive it or not, I've been through something like this before, so I'll keep you safe. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: _What luck to get rescued by such a stud. He's in good shape, has perfect teeth, and he probably has a college degree too_. So why don't you come over here and give your hero a kiss?"

She remained motionless for a second with a confused look on her face, and then she balled up her fist and punched him in the cheek. This caused them to swerve all over the road, and he had to pull his other arm back to stop them from crashing.

"Don't do that while I'm driving!" Liquid yelled once they were back on track. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Shut up, pervert!" She yelled back. "You're like, old enough to be my father, and in case you haven't noticed, I'm _way_ out of your league. So you just worry about getting us out of here, and leave a _perfect 10 _like me to the _real men_, who, I don't know... have money and a future."

Suddenly Liquid took his foot off the accelerator and hit the brakes, making them both lean forward as the car came to a very loud and screeching halt. The zombies in this part of the city were still a good distance away from them, but they quickly took notice of the police car just sitting there, especially when Liquid turned on the top lights and blasted the siren for a second.

"What are you doing?!" Claire yelled. "Those things are coming!"

"Let them come." Liquid announced in an overly-dramatic tone. "For you have cut me to the quick, and laid bare the truth about my pathetic and lonely exsistance that contains neither money nor a future."

Claire looked around as more and more zombies came out of the shadows, and the ones she had seen before were almost to the street. She was starting to sweat as the groaning of the creatures could be heard getting closer, and still Liquid just sat there.

"This isn't funny, Liquid." She said nervously. "Come on, joke's over... get us out of here."

"Ah, to escape." He continued in over-dramatics. "A path to happiness which will allow our lives to continue... but lo... I cannot. For I am a lonely loser who is doomed to a life of solitude."

The zombies were getting closer now, and Claire was starting to panic. She began to look around the car for anything at all that might help her, which led to opening the glove compartment, where she found a loaded pistol that she quickly pointed at his head.

"Let's try this again, dickweed." She said with restored confidence. "You will now get us the hell out of here, or I swear to every damn God in exsistance that I will splatter your brains all over this car. Now let's go!"

"I don't think so, Claire." He continued. "Sure, you could shoot me, but do you really think that you could move my body out of the way, get into the driver's seat, and get away before those zombies get to you? No, it appears that we are both doomed, but for me it will be a blessing. For I shall never be able to gain the affection of a girl as beautiful as you, so-

Suddenly she lowered the gun, grabbed him by the face, and kissed him on the lips. Liquid then started laughing as he turned off the top lights and pushed his foot down on the accelerator just before the zombies got to them.


	3. Ch 3 Kendo Gun Shop

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 3: Kendo Gun Shop**

Liquid kept chuckling to himself every time that Claire would look at him, so she looked away as they continued driving down the street. Eventually she started looking through the rest of the things in the glove compartment, and got a disgusted look on her face when she opened up a card case that she found.

"Oh my God, ewww!" She exclaimed as she tossed it at him. "I can't believe I had to kiss a cop."

"You know you loved it." Liquid replied as he picked up the case.

He opened it with one hand, and looked to see that there was an RPD badge on one side and an ID card with his picture that said: _Officer T. Liquid _on the other. Well, it made sense. If Xing had made him a member of STARS for the last punishment, there was no reason he wouldn't make him a regular cop for this one.

"I fucking hate cops." Claire continued as Liquid put the case into his robe. "Oh hey, look at what else I found in here."

Liquid was about to ask her what it was, but his words became an scream as she jammed the stun gun into his groin and pulled the trigger before he could do anything. This time he completely lost control of the car as they swerved onto another street and crashed into a guardwall. The stun gun fell from her hands, which was nice, but then she hit him in the side of the head with her pistol, to which he responded by hitting her in the face with the back of his fist.

She seemed to be shocked by this for a second as some blood dripped out of her nose, and then they both aimed their pistols at each other's faces.

"You son of a bitch." She hissed as she wiped her nose. "You can't hit me, I'm a girl."

"Prove it." He hissed back.

They just sat there for what felt like hours, but then everything around them began to light up. For a moment Liquid thought that the sun was coming up, but then he gasped in horror as he saw that the light was coming from not the sun, but from the headlights of an approaching semi. As it got closer they could see that the driver was a zombie.

"Zombies can drive?!" He yelled as it got closer.

"He's gonna ram us!" Claire screamed as she opened her door.

She dove out the passenger side as Liquid kicked open his own door, and he had just barely gotten out of the way when the semi crushed the car. The impact caused an explosion which threw Liquid forward, and when he looked back he saw that the way back was completely blocked by the flaming wreckage.

"Oh well." He said as he got to his feet. "Atleast I don't have to deal with _her_ anymore."

He had taken a few scrapes from hitting the ground after the explosion, and he was still _really_ sore from the stun gun, but that was ok since there weren't very many zombies around. Well, there _were_, but most of them were pretty far away, and the few that were close had been set on fire from the blast. Either way, he had to get away before they surrounded him again, so he started down the street in the only direction available.

Most of the buildings were boarded up, and all of the other roads were blocked by wreckage or fire, leaving him on a single path where he would be royally screwed if it came to a dead end. More and more zombies were coming after him now as he ran, and then his worst fears came true as the road ended, in fact, at a dead end.

There was no way to climb over the wreckage, nor did he have enough bullets in his pistol to fight off the approaching zombies, even if he _had_ been a good enough shot to make each one a head-shot. Despair was creeping into his mind, and he was about to give up hope, when he noticed the the door to the _Kendo Gun Shop _right next to him wasn't boarded up.

With the zombies right on his heels, he ran toward the door, pulling it open, and slamming it shut in their undead faces. They clamored at the door as he locked it, but couldn't seem to find a way in, so Liquid made faces at them through the window in the door. He laughed and pointed as they groaned hungrily outside, but then stopped laughing as he turned around to find the barrel of a shotgun being shoved up under his nose.

"Um, hi." Liquid said nervously.

"Shut the fuck up!" The gunholder ordered as he cocked the weapon. "Now you're gonna do what I say, when I say it, or I'm gonna fill you full of more holes than the Asshole-Day parade."

"There's an Asshole-Day parade?"

In responce, the gunholder suddenly swung the shotgun upward so that the stock slammed into Liquid's chin, knocking him off his feet. He fell onto a display case, shattering the glass as he fell to the floor, and making the pistol fall from his hands. The gunholder kicked the pistol toward a door on the far side of the shop, and kept the shotgun aimed at Liquid's head as he went through his robe's pockets.

"Oh, an off-duty cop, huh?" He asked. as he looked at the cardcase. "You know what I do to cops? Something like this."

He then began to kick and stomp Liquid in the torso and head, ending with putting his boot on the side of his face and pushing down with all his weight in an attempt to crush his skull. Now this was a pretty big guy that was pressing down on him, so Liquid used his hands to push back and keep the full weight off of himself.

The man just kept pressing down harder, and Liquid couldn't do much since the shotgun was still aimed at him. Then he saw a large pice of glass on the floor nearby, so he decided to try a risky manuver. He let go of the foot with one hand in order to grab the glass, and then the gunholder screamed as Liquid stabbed the sharp end into the back of his knee.

The shotgun went off, but he had been thrown off balance enough for it to shoot out the large store window instead of Liquid's head as the big man fell onto his back. As soon as he was down, Liquid dove over him to grab the shotgun, and kicked the former gunholder in the face to keep from being grabbed.

"Don't move, fuckstick!" Liquid yelled as he aimed the weapon at him.

The big man stopped moving, and put up his hands as Liquid got to his feet. Liquid then went to the back and picked up his pistol, which he used to shoot the man in the uninjured knee just as he was trying to get up. With a pained scream, he fell back down, and Liquid went through the other door which turned out to be the rear exit, closing it just as the zombies were coming in through the broken window.

"That's what you get for being an asshole." Liquid said as screams started to come from back inside.


	4. Ch 4 City Of The Dead

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 4: City Of The Dead**

It was easier to avoid the zombies now that they weren't being drawn in from all directions by a flaming crash site, so Liquid tried his best to maintain this low profile. Most of the small alleys behind the gun shop were blocked after short distances, making it difficult to stay out of sight, but at least part of this problem was solved by using a convienient fire escape.

The buildings in Raccoon City were built extremely close together, which allowed him to bypass several back alleys by simply climbing from one fire escape to another. The zombies had no clue that he was even there as he kept on moving above them, and this went well until one of the bolts broke off on the next ladder he jumped to.

"Oh no." He said as he tried, and failed, to grab the guardrail. "No, no, no, no."

There was nothing he could do as the ladder bent backwards, and it was only a matter of time before he hit the pavement below, where there were probably like a hundred zombies waiting to tear into his flesh. The good news was that he crashed onto the roof of a city transit bus instead of the street, but the bad news was that he broke right through and fell to the floor... where a bunch of zombies were standing around.

Liquid screamed as they dove onto him, kicking at them while knocking a few of them back with the shell that was already loaded in the shotgun. There was no time to pump in another round, so he kept kicking as he took out the pistol, firing wildly as he crawled away. He wasn't that far away from the door, but then one of the zombies dove at him, sinking its teeth into his left slipper.

"Let go of me, you dead fucker!" He yelled as he kicked it with his other foot. "I said get the fuck off me!"

He didn't want to risk shooting himself in the foot, so he kept kicking, which freed his foot when the zombie's teeth pulled the slipper off when it was knocked back. It had also grabbed hold of Liquid's other foot, which caused him to lose that slipper as well as he rolled forward down the stairs. He rolled right out the open door, hitting the pavement hard before he kicked the door closed.

The zombies couldn't figure out how to use the release lever from inside, so they just clamored helplessly at the door while he got to his feet. For a moment he wanted to start shooting them in the heads through the door for stealing his footwear, but then Liquid remembered that he only had a few rounds left in each weapon. There were also no zombies around for the time being, so he growled angrily at them before running through a nearby metal-gated door.

There was a locking bar on the other side of it, which he used once it was closed behind him, and it was too dangerous to go back outside of wherever he was now, so he decided to continue on. Looking around at his new surroundings, he found that he was now in some kind of courtyard for the large building up ahead, but there were more zombies shambling around up ahead.

"Too many to avoid." He said to himself as he looked around. "I don't have enough bullets to take them all out, either, so...

There was a stone stairway near him that went down about ten feet to a covered walkway of the same material, and it also appeared to bypass the rest of the courtyard where the zombies were. This was a no-brainer, so he slung the shotgun over his shoulder as he walked down the stairs, but then had to aim the pistol as a zombie groaned from the shadows.

"Aw, all by yourself down here?" He asked as it slowly came into the light. "Well, you just come out here where I can see you, and old Liquid's gonna... Brad?!"

Once the zombie was in the light, the first thing that Liquid noticed was that its mouth had been almost completely destroyed. This was gross and all, but then he had seen the S.T.A.R.S. unit patch on its shoulder, and he knew that it was in fact Brad Vickers, who had been killed by that monster in his last punishment.

"Oh, well." Liquid continued as he aimed at the zombie's head. "Night-night, you little-

Suddenly a small fist-sized object fell onto the ground between them, and he screamed as it went off with a blinding flash of light. For several seconds he was able to see nothing as he stumbled backwards and fell down, and when his vision came back into view there were several people in gas masks and riot armor standing over the fallen Brad-zombie as they shot it again and again.

"Morning, sunshine." A big man in similar clothing said as he grabbed Liquid by the hair. "Don't be a stranger, come say hello to the group."

Still disoriented from what he now realized had been a flash grenade, Liquid had been unable to grab his weapons as the big man pulled him to his feet and made him walk over to the others. They all started laughing as they looked at his clothes, being that all he had left was his bath robe and boxers, and then they took the card case from his pocket.

"Well, well, Raccoon City's finest." A woman laughed as she looked at it. "What's the _T_ in T. Liquid stand for? _Terrible_ cop? _Tight-ass_? _Total_ idiot?"

"Who the hell are you people?" Liquid replied as the others laughed at her jokes.

"We're asking the questions, numb-nuts." The big man spat as he hit Liquid in the head, knocking him down again. "But if you must know, we're the _Umbrella Security Service_, and don't bother asking our names, because we're all such bland and forgettable characters that you wouldn't remember us anyway."

He might not remember them later, but these guys were armed to the damn teeth. They each had an automatic rifle, lots of extra amunition, and several grenades on their belts. It looked like they were ready for the long haul, although their style and demeanor seemed like it belonged in a _Call of Duty _DLC more than a _Resident Evil _game.

"Get on your feet, shithead." The big man continued. "And then turn around so we can shoot you in the back like the helpless little bitch you are."

"Alright, fine, you guys got me." Liquid replied as he got to his feet. "But answer me one question: Does your armor and mask ever get in the way when you're fighting?"

The big man started to reply, but was stopped when Liquid suddenly smacked his mask to the side so that the lenses no longer lined up with his eyes. The big man made a wild swing at him with the stock of his rifle, but Liquid ducked down to avoid it while pulling the pins of two of the big man's grenades.

"Shoot him!" The big man yelled as he tried to fix his mask. "Fucking shoot him!"

The others were aiming their rifles at him by the time he was standing all the way back up, so Liquid shoved the disoriented big man toward him, and his armor was so heavy that they were all knocked down when he stumbled into them. The grenades went off a few seconds later as Liquid dove for cover, and the Umbrella Security Service members screamed as the explosion caused the rest of their grenades to go off as well.

They all vanished in a cloud of firey smoke which caused part of the covered walkway to collapse right where they had been laying, and when the smoke cleared, it was over. The Umbrella Security Service had been completely wiped out, and the rubble from the collapse had created a nice ramp for him to walk right up the the front door of the large building.

"They were right." He said to himself as he collected his weapons and card case. "I forgot about them already."

The ramp was a little difficult to scale since he was barefoot, but soon he was at the top where a large sign was mounted above the building's heavy double doors. It read:

_R.P.D._

_RACCOON POLICE_

There were no other paths he could take, and the zombies from around the courtyard were already starting to come toward the explosion, so Liquid took a deep breath, and pushed the doors open.


	5. Ch 5 Raccoon City's Finest

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 5: Raccoon City's Finest**

The first thing that Liquid did upon entering the main hall of the RPD was to whistle, causing it to echo all around the room. This place was massive, and looked more like the entrance hall of a museum that had been _converted_ into a police station. The architecture was amazing with the giant statues and pillars supporting the second and third floors, but he was more conserned with checking the side doors.

Making sure to lock the heavy front entrance so that nothing could follow him, Liquid checked the closest door, only to find that it was electronically locked, due to not having a keyhole. There were two more doors on the other side of the room, and the first of them was locked as well, leading him to believe that the last one would be too. However, this was not the case.

"Now we're getting somewhere." He said to himself as he slowly pushed the door open.

There did not appear to be any zombies around, so he took a second to survey the area as he carefully entered this long room. The only noise came from the ceiling fans that were slowly rotating, but the room itself was trashed as if there had been a battle recently. Papers and folders were scattered across the tables as well as the floor, and there was a corner office at the other end, so that's what he wanted to check out first.

"Freeze, mother fucker!" A man in an RPD uniform yelled as he jumped out from behind a large cabinet. "Now I know what you're thinking: Did that strong and handsome police officer fire five shots, or a hundred and twelve? So do you feel lucky... punk? Do you _gots_ to know?"

"Wait, um... I'm a cop too!" Liquid quickly explained as he got out his card case. "I'm Officer Liquid, and this it's actually my first...

His words were stopped as the cop brought up his large foot and kicked Liquid in the chest hard enough to make his pistol and card case fly out of his hands as he landed on his back. The cop then grabbed him by the hair to make him stand up, and shoved him face-first into the wall.

"Up against the wall, scumbag!" He ordered as he took the shotgun as well. "So you're a cop, huh? And let me guess, the bathrobe and boxers is the new plain clothes standard, right? Well, none of the matters now, because you're under arrest for being black on a Tuesday."

This charge confused Liquid, not only because it was friday and he was white, but because the arresting officer, who's nameplate was marked as _M. Branagh_, was a black man himself. Maybe the poor diluded fool was just unaware of the whole zombie thing, or maybe he had been traumatized by it to the point of denial, but when Liquid tried to talk again, he was quickly hit in the back of the head with Branagh's pistol.

Quiet, prisoner!" Branagh yelled. "You have the right to remain silent, so shut the fuck up! Anything you say can and will be used against you in our bullshit legal system. You have the right to an attorney, but that won't help you because the jurors will find you guilty just because they're mad that they had to serve on the jury that day. Do you understand each of these rights?"

"Sure do." Liquid replied. "But tell me... when you were firing all those bullets you were talking about, did you remember to reload?"

Branagh started to laught at this, but then he gasped and moved the pistol away so that he could check. Using this distraction to his advantage, Liquid stomped down on the cop's foot, not to hurt him, but to throw him off balance as Liquid ran into him backwards as hard as he could. Branagh's pistol flew out of his hands as they crashed into a table, and Liquid managed to get on top of him when they sunk to the floor.

He punched the cop several times in the face, but then Branagh got his foot under Liquid's chest, and used it to throw him off. The cop then rolled over and grabbed his pistol, reloading it as fast as he could and aiming it at Liquid just in time to have it shot out of his hand since Liquid didn't have to reload when he picked his own up.

He would have shot the cop dead right there, if not for his pistol clicking empty after he shot the weapon out of Branagh's hand, so instead he ran out of the room and shut the door just as the cop was getting his own pistol back. It was then that he realized that there was no way to keep the door shut, so he waited until the cop was opening it to come after him, then he kicked it open, smacking Branagh in the face with the door.

He fell back down as Liquid pulled the door shut again, and this time he held it with all of his strength as the cop tried to open it with all of his. For now they appeared to be at a stalemate, and the door was metal so it couldn't be shot through, but how long could he hold out?

"Give yourself up, Liquid!" Branagh yelled through the door. "You assulted a police officer, resisted arrest, stole police property, and had a pissy attitude about it, but if you give up now, I promise to only make your slow and painful death last for a few days."

"Hey, that's great." Liquid replied. "But, you know, catching me might take awhile. Just to be safe, you should lock the door and then break the lock so that I don't get away."

There was no way that this guy was a big enough dipshit to fall for something that obvious, but then Liquid almost shit himself as he heard the door locking from inside right before the door shook a bit from being shot several times.

"Ha-ha! Now I've got you!" Branagh bragged with a laugh. "So you can just stay in there until you are too tired and hungry to put up a fight, so score one for the good guys!"

"Yeah, you totally got me." Liquid replied as he rolled his eyes. "If anyone can beat a moron at their own game, it's _you_."

Branagh continued to cheer and brag to himself as Liquid walked away from the door, but now what was he supposed to do? The other doors were locked, and it was too dangerous to go back outside, so the only thing left to do was check the front desk, which was actually toward the back of the main hall for some reason.

The desk was cluttered pretty badly, but there was a spare clip for a 9mm pistol which is what Liquid had. The good news was that now he had some bullets for one weapon, but the bad news was that he hadn't been able to get the shotgun back while running from that cop. The only other thing of interest was the still active computer on the desk, so he sat down in front of it to see if it could do anything.

Most of the menu options gave him error messages, and this was understandable since this was 1998, so the computer was most likely running _Windows 98_, leaving him surprised that any part of it worked at all. The only menu that he could access was to open the electronic lock on the door next to the room Branagh was in, so he pushed the button, causing a loud _beep_ as the lock clicked open.

This was the only available path for him to take, so he moved away from the computer, and walked over to the door, this time putting his ear up against it to hear if anything was moving around inside. He could hear nothing, so he slowly turned the knob before opening the door and walking through.


	6. Ch 6 Licker

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 6: Licker**

Being careful to avoid another ambush like the ones that had been happening to him every five minutes in this city, Liquid very slowly entered the small waiting room, and thankfully there were no zombies or freakshow-cops waiting for him. For once a room he entered wasn't trashed, and was actually quite clean as he looked at the couches and the desk, only to suddenly dive for the floor at the next thing he saw.

Next to the reception desk was a window on the wall that led into the next room, and he had ducked down to avoid being seen by Branagh as the cop passed by it. He stopped, looked all around through the window for a few seconds, and then moved away. Liquid started to relax and get up, only to drop back down as he reappeared.

"God damn it." Liquid whispered to himself.

There was no point in sneaking back into the main hall since it was a dead end, and there was another door at the back of the reception office, but he would have to crawl across the floor against the wall like a snake to avoid being seen. He wanted to just shoot the cop right there, but the glass of the window was thick enough to be bullet proof, and he wanted Branagh to think that he was still somehow trapped behind the door to the main hall.

Slowly, very slowly Liquid slithered his way across the floor like the shady and pathetic worm that he was, deturmined to avoid the law like the small time crimminal that he had been since the days back in high school when his nights were spent drinking, tagging statues, failing to score with chicks, and...

"Hey, narrator, whose side are you on, here?" Liquid whispered.

Sorry, sometimes I can't help speaking the truth. Anyway, after making his way all across the room while repeatedly checking to see if Branagh saw him, Liquid reached up for the doorknob, only to stop as he thought he saw something move across the nearby outside window. He watched and waited for a few seconds, but nothing else moved, so he waited until the next time the cop left the window and made his move.

Pulling the door open just enough for himself to squeeze through, Liquid did a forward roll through the door, and slammed it shut behind him, only to then realize that the cop might have heard that noise. He remained motionless at the door while listening, but couldn't hear any change, so he allowed himself to relax. However, he didn't want to stay in one spot in case the cop came to check it out, so he got up, and started to explore this long hallway that he now found himself in.

Emergency shutters had come down on the windows, which was nice since there were probably zombies waiting to come in if they ever opened, and thankfully there didn't seem to be any in the hall with him. Still, he wanted to be careful, so he readied his pistol, and slowly walked forward to where he heard something from around the corner.

Jumping out and ready to kill anyone or anything that might have been there, Liquid aimed his weapon at the only other thing in the room, which happened to be a dead body of another cop. The head was missing, so he didn't worry about it getting up as he approached, but then he realized that the sound he had heard eariler was coming not from the body, but from the blood that was slowly dripping down from above it.

This was accompanied by the sound of something very big exhaling as he slowly looked up, and then he gasped and jumped back at what he saw. It was a skinned creature that crawled on all fours across the cieling, supported by long nasty claws, and for some reason its brain was completely exposed. Then it opened its mouth, and Liquid had to jump back even further to avoid the extremely long tongue that shot out.

It had to be over ten feet long, and the end was sharp enough to make a deep slash across the tile floor, but then the creature jumped down to the floor, and retracted its tongue as it appeared to smile at him. Liquid took a step back, and it stepped toward him. He moved left, then right, then left again, all the while the creature mirroring his movements. It's smile got bigger as it pointed a claw at the dead body behind him before pointing it back at Liquid, and then it nodded it's head yes as he shook his head no, and then it's tongue shot out again.

Liquid barely had time to dodge as the tongue ripped a hole in the flap of his robe, and then it wrapped around a piece of debris of debris on the wall, creating a bigger hole as it was pulled back to the creature's mouth. It shot out again, making him jump as it stabbed the floor between his feet before retracting, and this time Liquid aimed his pistol and shot it in the exposed brain.

The creature stumbled back and growled in pain, but it didn't die, and now it frowned at him before shooting the tongue out once again, sliding across his arm as he dove to the floor to avoid it. The cut was already bleeding by the time he fell, and there would be no time to react before it came at him again, but this time luck was on his side. The creature's tongue wrapped around a large fire extinguisher, which it ripped from its wall mount as it retracted, and then there was a metallic _clang_ as the creature was knocked onto its back.

Holding his arm in attempt to stop the bleeding, Liquid took this opportunity to get up and run past the creature. He went through another door at the end of the hall, shutting it just as the creature was recovering, and as he continued running he had just noticed the boarded up windows in this new hallway before he was grabbed.

Arms. Dozens of zombie arms were reaching through the half-ass baracades, more than enough to stop his run by grabbing onto his arms and also his robe that was quickly pulled off of him. The garment vanished between the boards, leaving him in only his boxers as the zombies tried to pull him through as well. The good news was that the wood stopped them from being able to bite him, but the bad news was that the tongue-creature had managed to push open the door.

"Aw, come on!" Liquid yelled as it approached. "Give me a break!"

The creature chuckled to itself as it shook its head, and then the tongue shot out again, but some of the arms got in the way, causing them to be severed instead of Liquid's head. This also allowed him to start pulling free, so the creature leapt at him, only to find itself stopped as even more arms grabbed it through another boared up window.

"Let go of me, you dead fuckers!" Liquid yelled as he pulled against them.

The creature tried to hit him with its tongue again, cutting him across the back and making him scream, but also severing enough of the arms to let him get free as he fell to his hands and knees. It roared in frustration as it began to claw and tongue-slice the arms while its prey took off running, and Liquid didn't stop to check any of the side rooms as he ran for the door at the other end of the hall.

Just like before, the creature recovered just as he was escaping, but this time Liquid didn't shut the door. He ran around it, and waited until it was crawling through before ramming it shut with his body. The creature was hit with the door, which seemed to stun it as it was pinned against the wall, and Liquid gave a crazed battle cry as he rammed it with the door over and over again.

Finally satisfied that the creature was throughly stunned, Liquid pressed his weight against the door to make sure that it was pinned before he aimed the pistol and fired several shots into its brain. It roared as he shot it again and again, but finally it gave an agonized cry before falling dead as its nasty purple blood began to spill onto the floor.

"Yeah, that's right!" He yelled as he backed off from the door. "Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

There was no one left alive to grant his request, but there was a groaning response from the zombies that he just notices were shambling around the room behind him. The hall split into two directions, a short hall that ended at another door, and a staircase that went up to the second floor. However, both paths were blocked by three or four zombies.

He only had a few bullets left in the pistol, so he looked around to try and figure out an escape, and then found it. There was a third door, a small one under the stairs, and only two zombies guarding it. The others would soon be on him, so he shot the two in front of the door, reaching it just as the main horde seemed to take interest.

He would probably be trapped inside, but it was better than getting eaten once his bullets ran out, so he pushed open the door, and slammed it shut, locking it just as the zombies outside began to claw and push against it. This was certainly not how Liquid planned on celebrating his birthday.


	7. Ch 7 The Return Of Branagh

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 7: The Return Of Branagh**

The zombies in the hallway outside continued to scratch and groan at the door, but for now they didn't seem to be able to get in. There was also no other way out, and his pistol was empty, leaving Liquid trapped in this dark room... which turned out to be an actual Darkroom. This explained why it was illuminated only with dim red lights on the ceiling.

Well, he wasn't going anywhere for awhile, so he decided to take a look around, starting with the large filing cabinet in the corner. There was a bunch of photo paper and canisters of spare film, but nothing else interesting. That is, until he found the small zippo lighter lying on the back of the top shelf. The pistol was doing him no good, so he tucked it into the back of his boxers, and clased the cabinet after taking the lighter.

The long developing table was toward the back of the room, and the first thing Liquid saw was a large envelope that immediatly peaked his interest. The label on it read: _1998_ _Women of Raccoon City Calendar_, and there were a bunch of photographs inside, which he immediatly started looking through just in case of, um, items hidden in between them? Sure, let's go with that.

"I'd like to be hidden between them." Liquid said to himself.

The first one was of Jill Valentine leaning against the wall in a police uniform skirt with her top unbuttoned, and the second was of Rebecca Chambers lying on her back in a basketball jersey and short-shorts. The next two he didn't recognize; a pretty blonde girl in the middle of putting on her Motocross outfit with a label on the picture that said _Elza Walker_, and an asian girl with brown hair wearing a labcoat and nothing else with a label that said _Linda Wong_.

"I think Elza's my favorite." He said as he put the photos down. "Why couldn't they have put _her_ in this game instead of that bitch, Claire?"

Well, after throughly searching the room for useful items, and taking about fifteen minutes for, um, _alone time _with the photos, Liquid still didn't have any way to get past the zombies outside. His first thought had been to use the chemicals, but most modern development chemicals were water-based, and had been for the past fifteen...

Then it hit him: He wasn't in modern times, he was in _1998_. This meant that there might still be something that he could use, so he went over to the containers and started throwing them out of the way one by one until he gasped as he found what he was looking for. It was a simple spraycan marked: Tetnal Protectant, and it was just what he needed.

"Alright, this one goes out to all you dumb fucks out there!" He yelled as he went over to the door. "A one, and a two, and a...

He unlocked the door and kicked it open as hard as he could, making the zombies in the hallway stumble back as he held the lit zippo lighter in front of the spray can. Then he pressed the nozzle, and the zombies groaned as they were sprayed down with chemical fire. It didn't take long for the first group to succumb to the flames and collapse, but the bottle ran out a second later, and the zombies on the stairs were still coming toward him.

The second floor was out for now, but the other path down the hallway was clear, so he ran for it. The zombies were slow, so there was no risk of being caught before reaching the door at the end, so he went through, closed and locked the door behind him, and sighed with relief as he saw that there were no more zombies in this room.

"Okay, safe for now." He said to himself as he looked around.

The only noise came from the ceiling fans that were slowly rotating, but the room itself was trashed as if there had been a battle recently. Papers and folders were scattered across the tables as well as the floor, and there was a corner office a few feet away. This was definitely the first place he wanted to check, but then he had a strange feeling of deja vu as he realized that this room looked really familiar.

"Freeze, mother fucker!" Branagh yelled as he came out of the office with his pistol raised. "What... you? How the hell did you get out of that closet?!"

Liquid wanted to run for it, or atleast dive for cover under one of the long tables, but the injuries that the tongue creature had done to his arm and back made this quite impossible. So he used his brain, and quickly came up with the most brilliant and cunning plan that he was able.

"I didn't get out!" Liquid suddenly yelled. "You've somehow become..._ trapped in here with me_!"

Thunder crashed and the lights flickered as Liquid made this startling revelation, and Branagh gasped as his eyes widened.

"You fiend!" He yelled while stepping around him. "You must have somehow lured me in here with your _Hannibal Lecter _mind games! Too bad for you that _this_ super cop doesn't give into despair so easily! So I'm gonna go back into the main room while you stay here and rot for the rest of your miserable life!"

Branagh laughed like a madman as he ran to the door that Liquid had just come in from. He then unlocked it and went through, closing it behind him as Liquid started running for the door to the main hall. However, he had only gotten halfway across the room when Branagh kicked open the door, forcing him to dive under the series of long tables regardless of his pain.

"Not so fast, evil doer!" The cop yelled as he started searching. "The jig is up! Your goose is cooked! That was a pretty clever plan, if not for the fact that Jeopardy doesn't air on Sunday!"

It took a lot of willpower to resist asking him what the hell he was talking about, but either way Liquid's plan had failed. He could see the cop's legs as he went from place to place in search of him, but thankfully these tables ran almost the entire length of the room. Unfortunately there were only a few places left to look, and soon the cop was standing right in front of the table where Liquid was hiding.

"I'm in the office!" Liquid yelled in desperation.

"Ah-ha!" Branagh yelled as he turned around. "You've given yourself away!"

The cop went running toward the office, and once he was away from the table, Liquid started crawling toward the end faster. Upon reaching the end, he jumped up to make his escape into the main hall, but then howled in pain as Branagh's pistol went off. The bullet went right through his leg, making Liquid crash into the ground, and he had to roll sideways in order to avoid the next few bullets that came for him.

"And he _almost_ got away with it." Branagh said as he reloaded his pistol. "You may be a crimminal mastermind, Liquid, but if you'd watched the seaon finale of _Stargate SG-1_, you'd have realized that _Nokia_ phones are on the decline."

Liquid was in too much pain to reply as his wounded leg continued to bleed on the floor, and now Branagh was starting to walk toward him for the kill. The only working item he had was the lighter, for all the good that did him, and at that moment he would have traded his soul for a bullet for his pistol, since he didn't want to die on the floor of a police station... wearing nothing but a pair of _Spongebob_ boxers.

Then he saw it: Laying on the floor just a few feet away was the one thing that could save his life... his shotgun that had been lost when he first met Branagh. Ignoring the pain but still whining like a little girl about it, Liquid rolled toward it just as the cop's bullet hit the floor where he had been. He rolled over the weapon, picking it up and aiming once he was facing Branagh, and they both shot at the same time.

Liquid cried out and dropped the shotgun as the bullet tore through his chest right before the shoulder, and Branagh made a kind of choking sound as the shotgun blast nearly took off his head. He stumbled back into the table before slumping dead to the floor, and Liquid cried out again as he tried to get up.

Leaving the weapons where they were, it was a struggle to pull himself up, and his only hope of survival was to find at the very least, a first aid box in the corner office. Blood continued to drip from him as he stumbled and limped into the office, and to his dissapointment there was not a first aid box. The only thing of value was a bright green plant in a small pot on the center of the desk.

It didn't look like marijuana or anything, but hopefully it would atleast take the edge off before he died, so he grabbed one of the large leaves, rolled it up, and lit the end with his lighter. The leaf burned fast, and as always the smoke was hard to take at first, but then he began to feel good. Not high or anything, but actually _good_.

Looking down at his injuries, he gasped as he saw that the hole in his chest was closing. It stopped a second later and the pain resumed, so this time Liquid took every leaf, rolled them into the fatty from hell with a piece of printing paper and some scotch tape, and smoked it like a champ. By the time he was done, all of his wounds had healed, and he felt better than he ever had.

"Alright!" He yelled as he struck a hero pose. "I'm back in action!"

He spit on Branagh's body as he walked past to get his shotgun, and then he came back to take everything the cop had. They weren't the same size, so he couldn't take the uniform, but there was a lot of ammo for the pistol. Reloading his weapon, slinging the shotgun over his shoulder, and putting the extra bullets in the cop's small sidepack, Liquid got up and walked back toward the door he had come in from.

"Now let's try this again." He said as he chambered a round. "_Oh, zombies_! Come out and play!"


	8. Ch 8 Sherry

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 8: Sherry**

The zombies near the stairs were a lot easier to deal with now that he was armed, so Liquid had no trouble making his way back down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor. There were only a few zombies there, so he was able to take his time as he shot them one by one, but then he saw something that he didn't expect. It was a little girl running around the zombies as they chased her.

Never one to allow a child to be attacked, Liquid wasted no time in taking down the zombies, which was even easier than usual since they were distracted by the girl. She just looked at him once the zombies had collapsed, and was probably scared out of her mind, so he went over to comfort her, but to his surprise she responded by kicking him in the shin.

"Thanks a lot, _asshole_!" She yelled. "Here I was, trying to have a little fun, and then you ruined it like an asshole... you _asshole_!"

She tried to kick him again, but he avoided it before kneeling down to her level. The girl was probably scared out of her mind and in shock or something, but fortunatly Liquid had taken some psychology courses at _Community College_, so he was confident that he could handle this situation.

"Look, I know you're scared, and that's ok." He said. "My name is Liquid, and, well, apparently I'm a cop. Can you tell me your name?"

"Sherry Birkin." She replied while appearing to calm down. "Gosh, I'm sorry I yelled at you... here, let me give you _this_ to make up for it."

Everything seemed to be working well as the girl reached behind her back, but then Liquid screamed as she pulled out a can of pepper-spray and shot it into his eyes, making him fall over backwards. He could barely see as her laughter filled the room, but this laughter stopped as he aimed his pistol and started shooting.

Thankfully not a lot of the spray had gotten into his eyes, so he was able to follow her blurry form as she ran down the hallway. The bullets slammed into the wall right next to her as she moved, but then she crouched down and crawled through a small opening in the bottom of a side door. Liquid tried to follow, but the hole was way too small, and the door wouldn't open when he tried it.

"The door is nailed shut, asshole!" Sherry yelled from the other side. "Looks like there's no way for you to open it, huh?"

"Nope, doesn't seem to be." Liquid replied as he backed away from the door. "Looks like you outsmarted me this time."

Sherry continued laughing as he backed up until he was all the way across the hall, and then he charged forward, ramming into the door so hard that it and its frame were busted right out of the wall. Liquid fell face first onto the fallen door as Sherry screamed, but this also gave her time to run away again.

He shot at her again as she reached the end of this latest hallway, but she turned left at the last second, making his bullets hit a vending machine instead. He was a lot faster than she was, so he rounded the corner a couple seconds after she did, just in time for Sherry to pull open a janitor's closet, causing him to scream as he was attacked by all the mops and cleaning supplies like a tidal wave.

"Way to _clean up your act_, asshole!" She laughed as she took off again.

There was another door about ten feet away, so she was able to get through it by the time Liquid got to his feet. Following her once again, this time the door led into a large library, and Liquid didn't even bother to ask why a giant police station would have a library as he spotted the girl running up a set of stairs to the library's second level.

She tried the first door that she came to, but it was locked, so she ran the other way, only to come to a dead end as Liquid reached the top of the stairs. This was it, he had her trapped, however there was a wooden creaking sound right before the floor collapsed underneath him. Liquid barely had time to cry out in surprise before crashing into the small space behind the stairs, and he heard Sherry's laughter as the dust cleared.

"Way to be _light on your feet_, asshole!" She yelled as she ran down the stairs. "See ya later!"

"I'll get you for this!" Liquid yelled as he got up.

A second later he heard a door slam, and he was alone. There was no visible way to climb back up to the hole above him, so he began to search around. This whole space was empty except for a metal plate on the wall Upon closer investigation, he saw that there was an inscription on it that read:

_READ THEN FOLLOW ALL INSTRUCTIONS TO OPEN_

_1. Climb over every bookcase in library twice without touching floor_

_2. Beat seven holes in the north wall with your head_

_3. Masturbate furiously to portrait of Chief Irons_

_4. Drink 15 cans of RC Cola from vending machine_

_5. Jump out the window (try to aim for the bushes)_

_6. Push the button without following any of the previous instructions_

Liquid was a little confused as he looked at the instructions, but then he simply pushed the obvious switch on the plate. The plate slid down to reveal a secret compartment behind it, and at the same time there was a rumbling sound as one of the walls moved, revealing that this place had simply been hidden by a bookcase. For a moment he wondered how anyone was supposed to get in there if it had to be opened from inside, but oh well.

Inside the compartment was some kind of electrical fuse or plug that had been cast so that it looked kind of like the castle piece of a chess set. He took it, since failing to solve that puzzle could have seriously injured or even killed him, although the worst part would've been drinking the _RC Cola_, and he shuddered from the horror.

Either way, he was free of the place behind the stairs, so he walked back into the library, and now had to make a choice about which way to go. The door upstairs was locked, and he didn't want to deal with trying to open it, and he didn't want to go any farther without checking out the way he came, so he turned around andwent back through the door he had chased Sherry through.


	9. Ch 9 The STARS Office

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 9: The STARS Office**

Back down the hall where he had chased Sherry, over the fallen janitoral supplies, past the shot-up vending machine, and back through the door he had broken down, Liquid found himself back in that first hallway after coming up the stairs. So far there had been no sign of Sherry, so he continued on his way, passing statues and works of art that once again seemed inappropriate for a police station, but then he saw a familiar sign on the wall.

_S.T.A.R.S._

_Special Tactics and Rescue Service_

Finally, a good sign. The office of the RPD S.T.A.R.S. unit was bound to be filled with all kinds of supplies that he could use, so he went over to the door and thankfully it was open. Like everywhere else, this room was abandoned and trashed with papers and other things scattered across the desks and floor. However, the first place he decided to search was the large metal locker in the corner of the room, and Liquid smiled when he opened it.

There were no special weapons inside, but there was plenty of ammo for the weapons that he already had, along with an RPD uniform with a utility belt that had plenty of space to hold his stuff. Long tired of running around in his boxers, Liquid grabbed the uniform and was soon dressed as a member of the Raccoon Police Department. He then put on the belt, which included a holster for his pistol, several pouches for his clips, a pouch big enough to hold the shotgun shells, and extra carrying space for things like that chess plug he got earlier.

There didn't appear to be anything else of value in this already ransacked office, so he was about to leave, when he saw a small book laying on the corner of one of the desks. It was labled: _Chris Redfield's Private Diary, Don't Touch_, so Liquid immediatly opened it up and began to read the first entry.

_ Entry 1: My God, Jill is cute. I would give my soul for a chance to bang her, if I hadn't already sold it to Capcom in order to become the Poster Boy for Resident Evil. Still, it would be nice to have sex with something other then my hand for a change. _

_ Entry 2: At the Christmas party I succeded in getting Jill drunk enough to have sex with me. Unfortunately, I only lasted about a minute before screaming out my own mother's name, and then crying for the next half hour. On the brighter side, Jill passed out, so she probibly won't remember any of this. _

_ Entry 3: She remembered, and of course she told Wesker, who in turn got on the P.A. system, and told the whole station. God I hate that man. I swear that I would beat his ass in a second if I wasn't such a pussy, er, I mean, if the loss of him as our leader wouldn't cripple our unit... yeah, let's go with that._

_Entry 4: Wesker crossed the line today. I walked into the office, and he was reading his monthly issue of Playboy. Normally I wouldn't care, but then he turned to the college girls section, and made a point of showing me the center fold. Once again I wouldn't have cared, except for the fact that it was a centerfold of my sister, Claire._

Liquid stopped reading, and tossed the book away before beginning his search for Wesker's desk. Once located, the desk in question appeared to have already been searched, but this didn't stop Liquid as he dug through the papers on top and went through every drawer until he found what he was looking for.

"Yes!" He yelled as he held up the _Playboy College Girls Special_.

Like a madman, he opened the magazine and flipped through the pages until getting to the centerfold, and sure enough, it was Claire. He must have sat there staring at the centerfold for more than fifteen minutes, but then he was brought back into reality as he heard the office door being opened behind him.

"_You_ again?" Claire asked as she saw him. "What are you... oh my God, you _pervert_!"

"Hey, _you're_ the one who posed for these." He replied. "Nice rack, by the way."

She growled before drawing her pistol, and he drew his at the same time. Now they just stood there, pointing their weapons at each other's heads. Liquid gave the centerfold a kiss on the lips before dropping the magazine, and Claire got even angrier as their stalemate continued.

"Funny thing, situations like this." Liquid said. "The movies make it look like either one of us could shoot the other at any time, but the truth is that if one of us does that, the other one will shoot them back out of reflex... even after a head shot."

"Then I guess we're stuck like this, huh?" Claire hissed. "Mark my words, you filthy fucking cop, you are _going_ to pay for this, and then...

Her words became a cry of surprise when Liquid pulled the trigger, but his bullet hit her pistol, making it fly out of her hand. Then he walked up to her and smacked her in the mouth. She growled again as her fist balled up, but he pressed the barrel of his pistol up under her jaw, and her anger quickly faded.

"Let's get something straight, Claire." He said. "Now, you don't like me, and I _damn sure _don't like you... well except for your _T&A_. Anyhow, we've found ourselves in a shitty situation, and we're going to have to work together in order to survive, being that everyone I've met so far has tried to kill me. Then after we've escaped the city, we can go our separate ways. Ok?"

She nodded nervously, and Liquid slowly moved the pistol away from her and back into the holster. For a second it looked like she was going to attack again, and he was prepared to knock her damn teeth out if she did, but then she relaxed and so did he.

"Good, I'm glad we could work things out." He continued. "I'm taking a big risk in trusting you Claire, and its not just because I want to bang you, which I do. We need to work together in order to get out of this, and as long as you watch my back, I will do the same for you, ok?"

She nodded again, and went to pick up her gun, with Liquid watching intently as she bent over to get it. He also even showed her where the extra ammo in the locker was, and her brother's diary, even though that one made her get mad again for a second. Soon their weapons were reloaded, they took all the supplies they could carry, and it was time to move on.

"Hold on a second." Claire said. "I'm willing to work with you for the sole purpose of saving my own ass, but there's gonna be some conditions. 1. Don't _ever_ touch me unless its required to save my life or something. 2. Look into my _eyes_ when we talk, and don't even_ think _about looking at anything below them. 3. We are _not _friends, co-workers, dating, fuck-buddies, or involved in _any_ relationship of _any_ kind because... _ewww_."

"Are you done?" Liquid asked. "If so, then let's get going."

They glared at each other for a second, and then he opened the door in order to look at her ass as she walked back into the hallway.


	10. Ch 10 The Two Helicopters

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 10: The Two Helicopters**

It was nice to be working with someone again, instead of having to take on the whole scenario by himself, and Xing never said anything about him having to follow the rules in any situation that he came to. Now, Claire was not the person that he would have chosen to watch his back, not that he minded watching hers, but again, it was better than nothing.

"What the hell happened in here?" She asked as they went past the vending machine and janitorial closet. "This must have been one hell of a battle against the zombies."

"Yeah, right, the _zombies_." Liquid replied while looking away. "Must've been rough."

Liquid was not about to tell her that he had spent a good ten minutes trying to kill a little girl, so it was just best to move on. He had switched to the shotgun since he now had enough shells for it as they moved into the library, and Claire's sudden question as to why a police station would need a library made him feel better since now they could atleast agree on something.

"I'll go check out out here." She said as she ran up the stairs. "Hey, watch yourself if you come up here, there's a hole at the top. Wow... this whole floor looks like its about to collapse... I sure hope no one's stupid enough to run up here like a fucking moron."

"Right, good to know." Liquid grumbled as she tried to locked door he had already seen. "Is it locked? Then let's go this way."

With the upper door locked, and him having explored the living shit out of the past halls, the only way forward was through another set of double-doors to the front. So they got on each side of it, and on a silent count of three, they kicked open the doors, rushing out with weapons ready. However, there were no hordes of zombies or monsters waiting for them, only a stone walkway that stretched around the walls above a room that Liquid instantly recognized.

"The main hall?" He asked with dissapointment in his voice. "All that _just_ to get up here?"

"Atleast it lets us get into the other side of the building." Claire replied.

She pointed across the room, and there on the far end of the walkway was another door. There was literally nowhere else to go since they couldn't get to the walkway above them, so they started around. Their footsteps echoed as they walked above the front desk as well as the room where he had fought Branagh, but he stopped when they came to an emergency ladder.

"Hold on a sec." He said as he grabbed the release lever. "I'd like to have this ready in case we need to make a quick escape."

He pulled the lever, and there was a small explosion of dust and black smoke, making them jump back as the whole thing broke off its mounts and crashed down to the first floor. Black smoke continued to rise from the broken unit as the two of them looked over the guardrail, and Claire just glared at him with a mixture of anger and dissapointment.

"What?" Liquid asked. "This might look bad, but _trust me_, its better that we find out its broken _now_ instead of waiting until we're being chased by monsters or something."

She rolled her eyes as she resumed walking, and nothing was said between them as they reached the door and went through it into another small waiting room. Like the other one he had been in on the first floor when he was trying to avoid Branagh, this room was remarkably untouched by the zombie outbreak. There was nothing in the desk drawers except for a diary that rambled about art, and nothing else in the room except for furnature.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Claire asked.

Liquid listened for a second, and then they both looked up as they started to hear a faint rumbling in the distance. It sounded like it could have been a malfunction in the building's heater or in the pipes at first, but then it got louder and became more distinct until they both looked at each other excitedly.

"A helicopter!" They both exclaimed.

Running for the door on the other side of the room, Claire threw it open so hard that it knocked the zombie on the other side down, and Liquid blasted it with his shotgun without even stopping. This new hallway was a lot darker than the others, but there were a bunch of windows on the right side that let them see part of the city. There were fires and signs of damage all over the place, but then a light shined across the window as a helicopter moved toward them.

"Over here!" Claire yelled as she pointed to a door marked _Exit_.

They ran over to it and Liquid kicked the door open, revealing that they were now on the RPD's helipad. The helicopter they had seen was now hovering above, and there was a cop underneath him with an assault rifle, trying to reach the ladder that was let down. Unfortunately the cop was also surrounded by zombies, and Liquid and Claire were behind the approaching zombies when he started shooting.

"Get down!" Liquid yelled as he tackled Claire.

Several bullets slammed into the wall where they had been standing as the cop shot at the zombies, but there were too many of them, and soon they had taken him down. It always sucked to see someone lose to the monsters, but the worst part was that he kept firing into the air as they bit into him. These bullets went through the floor of the helicopter, striking the pilot several times before he collpased on the controls, and this caused the helicopter to spin out of control.

"You've got to be kidding me." Claire said as it got closer.

"Oh shit!" Liquid yelled as he jumped up. "Run for your life! Run!"

He helped Claire up just before the helicopter crashed, and then there was an explosion outside that shattered the windows as the two of them were thrown forward. They hit the floor and slid to a stop against the nearest wall as glass and debris showered down onto them, but the good news was that they were still alive when the smoke started to clear.

"Well, that could've been worse." Claire said as she sat up. "At least I landed on something soft."

"You're heavier than you look!" Liquid gasped. "Get off me!"

He pushed her away before coughing as he sat up, and then his heart sank as he looked toward the door. It and most of the ceiling above it had been completely collapsed, meaning that they could no longer get to the heliport on the off chance that another helcopter appeared.

"This is all _your_ fault, Liquid." Claire hissed. "Maybe if you went to the _gym_ more often then you could've run faster and we could've stopped this."

"You're one to talk,_ thunder thighs_." He hissed back, making her gasp. "Maybe if you hadn't tazered me while we were nice and safe in the police car, we could've drove out of the city and we wouldn't even _be_ in this hellhole right now."

Hate filled both of their eyes as they came at each other, and Claire tried to choke him while he grabbed her by the hair and pulled one of her hands from his throat. This went on for several seconds, but then stopped as they both looked out the window when another sound was heard. Slowly they let go of each other as they realized that it was the sound of another helicopter, and then they ran to the door to start clearing the debris.

"Hold on a second." Liquid suddenly said. "Something's different."

They looked back out the window, and saw that it was not one, but a dozen black helicopters that were much bigger than the police one, and each had a cargo container suspended below it. Suddenly they all split up into different directions, and this made Liquid nervous as he spotted the _Umbrella_ logo on the side when it came overhead.

"Claire, pick up your gun." He said quietly as he grabbed the shotgun from the floor. "Something's very wrong here."

She did as he said, and joined him in backing away from the door as the helicopter hovered right above the building. Unlike the last one, this helicopter didn't try to land, and remained at high altitude for a moment before flying away. Liquid was about to ask what that was all about, when his words were stopped by something big crashing through the ceiling right in front of the door, causing him and Claire to scream and hold eachother as more debris rained down upon them.


	11. Ch 11 Mr X

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 11: Mr. X**

Liquid and Claire both coughed as the debris stopped falling, and then she gasped when she realized that they were still hugging. In fact, she pushed away before smacking him so hard that he stumbled backwards. Then he came forward and smacked her just as hard in return.

"What the hell is your problem?!" He demanded.

"I'm _looking_ at my problem!" She yelled back. "We're fighting for our lives here, and all you can think about is trying to feel up on me!"

Liquid was about to say something else, but was interupted as a deep and scary growl came from near the door. The smoke was still being cleared by the wind blowing through the broken windows, but both of them gasped when it was finally gone. Standing before them was something that looked like a bald-headed human in a green trench coat, but it was just... wrong.

It was easily seven feet tall, and built like a linebacker, with cold dead eyes and a blank expression on its face. Suddenly it moved, swinging its powerful arm at the two of them, but they managed to jump back in time for it to smash through a part of the wall instead. Then it came forward with footsteps heavy enough to shake the room, but this time Liquid and Claire were ready.

They both emptied their weapons at the creature, it's torso twitching from each shotgun blast while bullet after bullet from Claire's pistol slammed into its legs. However, none of this seemed to have any effect on this monster, so they kept backing away as it approached.

"This isn't working." Claire said as they reloaded. "Ok, _Officer_, what do we do now?"

"Well, if bullets aren't enough." Liquid replied as he looked around. "Then we need to find something in the environment to help us... like_ those_."

This hallway was dark, but that was because it was illuminated by a bunch of chandeliers with what looked like real candles on them. The candles weren't important, but the fact that each chandelier was huge and _very_ heavy looking was. So Liquid aimed upward as they backed away, and waited until the monster was right under one before firing.

For once a plan went perfectly, with the chain holding the chandelier being shattered by the blast, causing the heavy fixture to come crashing down onto the monster's head. It didn't try to block it or even to move out of the way, taking the full force as it growled and fell on its face under the chandelier.

"Not bad, Liquid." Claire said as they looked at it.

"Yeah, I'm awesome like that." He replied. "Now let's find a way to finish it off before...

He was interupted by a growl coming from the creature as it pushed the chandelier off its back, and both of them gasped as it slowly got to its feet. There was no need to say anything in order for them to know that it was time to fall back, so they ran back through the door into the waiting room, and locked it before sliding the desk and all the other furnature in front of it.

"You think this will hold it?" Claire asked.

"I doubt it." Liquid replied as he went to the other door. "But it _should_ slow it down long enough to lose our trail. Let's go."

She followed him out the door, and back onto the stone walkway where they ran almost all the way to where the emergency ladder had been before he noticed that they weren't being followed. This only made them stop for a second, and they were about to resume running away, when part of the wall shattered as the monster busted its way through.

Liquid and Claire had to dive out of the way in opposite directions to avoid it as it came through the wall between them, and Liquid was not at all surprised when it turned toward him. It didn't seem to notice Claire at all, and she wasted no time taking advantage of this by turning tail and running back the other way.

"_Don't worry, Claire, I got this_." He grumbled sarcastically as she dissapeared through the door. "_You just get yourself to safety, and let me handle the trench-coat nightmare all by myself, you little bitch_."

The monster looked like it was about to come after him, but then it reached into the wall, and ripped out a long section of iorn pipe. Holding it in both hands, it effortlessly bent the pipe into a horseshoe, and then just as easily straightened it out before putting it back into a horseshoe by bending it the opposite way. To Liquid's surprise, it suddenly tossed him the pipe, and folded its arms as if waiting to see what he would do with it.

"Oh, I see." Liquid said as he slung the shotgun over his shoulder.

The monster watched as he held the bent pipe in both hands, and with a mighty yell he struggled to straighten it back out. Liquid's face turned red as he used all of his strength, but it was no use, so he threw the bent pipe in the monster's face before screaming and running away, making it growl as it slowly stomped after him.

The only way to go was back through the double doors into the library, so he did, and took the time to push over a heavy bookcase so that it fell against the door. He pushed down three more so that they were all stacked against each other, and he was about to head back toward the STARS office, but then he got an idea.

If he was careful, Liquid would be able to walk across the broken area up the stairs, and that monster would never be able to follow him, so it would make a good hiding place for the time being. He already knew that the stairs were safe, so he ran up them, and then very slowly and carefully made his way across the creaking boards over to the locked door.

The lock was easily bypassed by a blast from his shotgun, since he wasn't worried about making noise at this point, and the door swung open, allowing him access to the third floor walkway. It was stone just like the one beneath it, however this one only went a short distance across one wall, ending at a single door. Hopefully there would be something useful like a better weapon inside the room, or at least more hallways to escape through.

He was running down the walkway, and almost to the door, when something moved behind him. Something had attached itself to the other side of the guardrail, and it took him a second to realize that it was an arm right before the monster pulled itself up over the rail and onto the walkway. It was now standing between himself and the door back into the library, trapping him up there with it, and now his only hope was the other door.

So he ran for it as the creature stomped its way after him, and Liquid slammed the door shut behind him after running into what turned out to his dissapointment to be just another small room. He locked the door and backed away as the monster's stomps got closer, and the only place for him to go now was up a small set of wooden stairs that led to an upper part of this room. There were gears and chains along the walls, making Liquid think that this place controlled the large clock on the outside of the RPD, but there was no time to examine them as the door was knocked off its hinges as the monster came through.

Quickly running up the stairs, Liquid hoped that there would be something, anything that he could use, but it was just a dead end. No tools, no weapons, nothing except a bare wall that Liquid backed up to as the monster followed him up the stairs. With each step the creature punched its fist into its other hand, and it was just reaching the top of the stairs, when the wall behind Liquid moved.

Well, not moved, more like vanished completely, causing him to scream as he fell backwards into what looked like an old coal chute. The good news was that he had escaped from the monster, but the bad news was that he had no idea where he was going as he tumbled down, and down, and down.


	12. Ch 12 The Basement

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 12: The Basement**

Liquid was spun around in the darkness as he bounced his way down the old coal chute, but then light filled his vision just before he crashed to the hard floor. He coughed from the dust raining down around him from in the chute, and then he looked around at his new surroundings. Both the floor and walls were made of concrete, and he had landed at the end of a hallway that was illuminated by a row of flickering flourescant lights along the ceiling.

"The basement." He said as he pulled himself to his feet. "Of course it is, where else would I end up?"

Taking the shotgun off his back and reloading it, Liquid began to make his way down the hall while also trying to be as quiet as possible. There could have been any number of monsters lurking around each corner, but atleast he had gotten away from that big thing upstairs. So far there were no sounds around him as he rounded the first corner, but then he came to a door on the side that was labeled: _Morgue_.

"No." He said to himself as he walked past it.

There was another side door up ahead on the opposite side of the hall, and this one was labeled: _Armory_. This was good news for a change, so he went up to it and pushed the button for the metal door to slide open, but nothing happened. That was when he noticed the card reader on the wall next to the door, along with a note taped to it which read: _Marvin. Left key for you in Morgue. Phil._

"Aw, sheep shit." Liquid grumbled to himself as he looked back at the other door. "Fuck you, Phil."

He continued to grumble as he made his way back to the morgue door, and Liquid stopped to take several deep breaths before turning the knob as quietly as he could. Leading with the shotgun, he carefully stepped into the dimly lit morgue, and allowed himself to relax as he realized that he was alone. He also saw a red key card hanging from the ceiling by a string at the center of the room, and he started toward it, when he suddenly stopped when he heard the familiar sound of something big exhaling.

He hoped and prayed that it was not what he thought it was as he looked up, but there it was. It was another one of those tongue creatures that was using its claws to hang onto the ceiling just like the first one he saw. However, this one did not drop down the moment he came close, and since he was not quite as paralyzed with fear this time, he noticed that it didn't seem to have any eyes.

Was it blind? Was that why it wasn't attacking? He hadn't exactly been trying to keep quiet when dealing with the first one, so there was no way to be sure without testing it on this one. So he continued to be quiet as he stepped forward. The morgue itself wasn't that big, so the card was only a few feet from his outstretched fingers, and with his other hand he kept the shotgun aimed at the creature's exposed brain.

_Just a little closer_, he thought as his fingers went around the key. This was it, the key was in his hand, and he was about to pull it down, when he stopped after taking a last look up. His eyes followed the string all the way up, but it appeared to be wrapped once around the one of the creature's claws just before connecting to the ceiling. That meant that if he pulled on it, the creature would be alerted and immediatly come after him... so... had it done this on purpose?

He didn't have a knife or anything, so the only thing he could do was use his teeth to carefully bite the string without pulling on it too hard. It took awhile, but finally after gnawing on it hard enough, the string snapped, and the armory key card was his. Now backing away slowly, Liquid fought to control his breathing as he moved back to the open door, and let it close once he was through.

"Fuck you, Phil." He said to himself as he took a minute to catch his breath.

Now the card was his, and he knew that the tongue creatures could open doors if they had to, so he crept away from the morgue door, and let out a loud sigh of relief as he got back to the armory door. Tearing down the note and sliding the card through the reader, there was a low beeping sound as the door slid open to reveal... not much.

There were plenty of lockers and weapon racks, but each locker was open and empty, while the same could be said for each rack. Someone had completely cleaned out the place, and there was another note inside the farthest locker, with the same handwriting as the note on the card reader. It read:

_Marvin, today is my last day, so I moved all the weapons and ammo into a dozen random locations around the station because that sounds like anything close to a good idea. You guys always made fun of me for wanting to do weekly inventory, so I hope you get down here before there's a real emergency. Happy Retirement to me, and so long, sucker. Sincerly, Phil._

"Fuck you, Phil!" Liquid yelled as he crumpled the note in his hand. "I hope one of those tongue things got you while you were on the toilet!"

He threw the note on the ground and jumped up and down on it a few times before managing to calm down enough to control himself. In a sort of pathetic hope that something would be left, Liquid searched the whole room from top to bottom, managing to get a few extra rounds for his current weapons, but nothing else.

He took them, of course, and then exited the armory in order to continue down the hall. He still wasn't sure exactly where the coal chute had dropped him in regards to finding the way back up, but then he came to a door with a glowing red sign above it that read: Exit. He was filled with hope that maybe this would give him a hidden escape route from the city, but all it managed to do as let him into the parking garage when he went through the door.

The first thing he heard was the groaning of zombies, but thankfully the security grate for the entrance/exit ramp was down. There were over a dozen of them clamoring and pulling on the shutter, which was nice because he didn't want to take on that many of these creatures, but it was also blocking his only way out.

Of course, something wasn't right as he moved further into the garage. He had only just gotten there, and the zombies were already in a frenzy that they only entered when they were aware of living flesh being nearby. Now this meant one of two things: Either the zombies could sense him before they saw him, which would really suck if they learned to do that, or there was a much simpler solution that there was already someone...

Suddenly his thoughts were interupted as there was a gunshot, followed by the ricochet of a bullet as he struck the floor between his legs and then hit the tire of a nearby patrol car, causing it to _hiss_ for several seconds as it deflated.

"Oh, Christ." Liquid said to himself as footsteps could be heard behind him. "What now?"


	13. Ch 13 Ada

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 13: Ada**

"Well, well, what do we have here?" A female voice asked behind him. "A survivor of the RPD? I didn't think any of you were still alive, so why don't you drop that shotgun and turn around nice and slow?"

Liquid did as she said, and very slowly turned around, planning to make a move to either fight or run away the moment he was facing his attacker, but then he froze once he was facing the owner of the gun. If he thought Claire was hot, then this girl was a _bombshell_, and the only thing able to move was his eyes as he looked at her short black hair and very tight short red dress.

"Um, hi." He said.

"I don't remember telling you to talk." She replied. "Now here's how this is gonna work: You're going to do absolutely anything I tell you, and in exchange I will try my hardest not to kill you or kick your ass. Any questions?"

"Yeah, just one. Who's that guy over there?"

The woman looked over her shoulder to see that there was no one there, and Liquid used this distraction to knock the pistol from her hand while drawing the one in his holster. However, she brought up her leg and kicked it out of his hand before giving him a palm-stike to the forehead that made him stumble back a bit.

"Why?!" Liquid found himself yelling. "Why is everyone in this damn city trying to kill me?! Did you all somehow not notice all the zombies and monsters running around?!"

"Oh, I noticed." She replied. "I just don't like cops; now are you going to be a good boy and do what I tell you, or do I need to beat you down?"

Liquid said nothing, which she must have taken for an answer, since she came running at him a second later. She dropped down at the last second to sweep at his legs, but he jumped back to avoid it, but he was unable to avoid her head as she suddenly sprang upwards. The top of her head slammed into his jaw, making him fall sideways onto the hood of a nearby car, but this time when she came at him he rolled backwards, hitting her in the face with his feet. She fell onto her back as he got to the other side of the car, but she recovered just as quickly.

"Now you've done it." She said with surprising calm. "I was going to go easy on you, but like all men, it's obvious that you need to be put in your place."

Not wanting her to get the drop on him again, this time Liquid came at her first. He punched, but she twisted her body to avoid it while bringing her knee into his stomach at the same time. This was followed by three quick punches to his face, and a spin kick to his chest that sent Liquid stumbling back into another patrol car. The woman was on him again before he could do anything, and this time when he punched at her, she grabbed his wrist while kicking him in the groin. She twisted his wrist behind his back as he doubled over, and then she shoved him forward so that he want halfway through the open passenger window of the car.

She kept his wrist twisted behind his back so that he wouldn't be able to free himself, and then she grabbed his fingers with her free hand, making him cry out as she bent them as far as they would go without breaking.

"Perhaps we got started wrong." She suggested as she kept bending. "My name is Ada Wong, and I'm here looking for a guy named Ben. He's locked up in the holding cells down here, but I need a big strong man to help me move a big police truck out of the way. Would you like to help me with that?"

She twisted his fingers in a different direction, making him cry out again, and there didn't seem to be much that he could do from being halfway inside a police car. He was going to have to cooperate with her, so Liquid was about to give in, when he saw something on the floor. Struggling to reach it with his free hand as she twisted his fingers again, he just managed to get a hold of what he realized was a collapsed shock baton.

"Ok, you win." He said as he flipped it upside down. "I'll do anything you want."

"There, was that so hard?" Ada asked. "Now let's get you out of there."

She pulled him backwards to free him fron the window, but then he pushed the button to release the baton, causing sparks to fly as the end struck her in the chest. The impact made her gasp as she fell against one of the garage's support pillars, and then Liquid spun around and brought the baton across her back, making her scream as she was dropped to her hands and knees. The shock baton had certainly ruined her day, but she was still trying to get up, so Liquid made a fist, kissed his knuckles, and then uppercutted her in the mouth.

The force of the blow brought her back up to her feet, only to have her hit her head as she fell against the sideview mirror of another car, and finally collapsing to the ground. Liquid retracted the shock baton and put it on his belt before using this time to quickly recover his pistol and shotgun. Ada still hadn't moved by the time he was done, so he aimed his pistol at her head for a second, only to shake his head as he holstered it a moment later.

"You're lucky I need the bullets." He said as he stepped away.

Now that this latest problem had been dealt with, Liquid resumed looking around the garage, quickly spotting the truck that she had been talking about. It was parked right in front of a door for some reason, but he saw that the brake was already released as he did a quick walk around. Checking again to see that Ada was still unconsious, he decided to find out exactly what she was after in the holding cells, so he went around to the back of the truck and pushed with all his might... and it didn't move.

He tried again and again to push the truck, but it just wouldn't budge. That is, until he kicked it out of frustration, and the truck came rolling right toward him. It moved a lot faster than he thought it would, and there was no time to jump out of the way, so he dropped to the ground. The truck passed right over him as it scrapped along the concrete wall, and then Liquid nearly had a heart attack as he saw that it was headed right toward the metal shutter where over two dozen zombies were still clamoring to get in.

The shutter shook as the truck came to a stop against it, but it didn't break, allowing Liquid to sigh with relief. But then the whole thing collapsed into a thousand pieces, and he jumped to his feet as the zombies came forward. There were too many to fight off, but the door to the holding cells was no longer blocked, so he opened it and ran through, closing and locking it behind him. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he suddenly froze as he realized that he had left the unconsious Ada out there.

"My God, they're gonna kill her." He said to himself.

Then he shrugged, and continued on toward the holding cells.


	14. Ch 14 The Prisoner

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 14: The Prisoner**

The hallway that lead to the holding cells was not as well lit as other parts of the police station that Liquid had been through, but at least there weren't any zombies around. Except for a single metal side door that he could investigate later, there was only one way to go, so he followed it around a few turns until he came to a door that was made of chainlink fence. Beyond it he could see the holding cells, and the lock on the door in front of him had already been released, so he pulled it open and walked through.

There were only three holding cells, which made no sense because Raccoon City had a population of over 100,000 people, and the first two were both open and empty. The third cell, however, was locked and there was a man with a ponytail lying on the bed.

"So, I'm guessing that you're Ben?" Liquid asked.

"Fuck off, pig." He replied. "I'm trying to sleep here."

Liquid was getting pretty tired of everyone being such an asshole to him all the time, so the only natural solution was for him to be an even bigger asshole to put things back into balance. Now, the bed that Ben was lying on was metal with no mattress, and it was bolted to the bars. So he took the shock baton off his belt and touched it to the bars, making Ben scream as the electricity made him fall onto the floor.

"Holy fucking shit!" Ben yelled as he scooted into the corner of the cell. "You're crazy, man!"

"Maybe a little." Liquid replied as he put the baton away. "So let's start again. Hi, I'm Officer Liquid, and you should probably cooperate with me since I'm the only cop left alive in this place."

Ben's eyes widened in reaction to this revelation, and then he magically seemed to become more friendly as he got up.

"There was a woman named Ada looking for you a few minutes ago." Liquid continued. "She's probably dead by now, but she seemed to think finding you was pretty important, so why is that?"

"Ada? Never heard of her." Ben replied. "Look, man, I'm just a reporter; I was doing a story on police corruption, when this psycho named Branagh kicked my ass and threw me in here. Sure, I _may_ have been sneaking around in the evidence room, and I _may _have been sampling some coke from a recent bust, but that's no reason to lock me up."

Liquid was about to say something, but was interupted as a monstrous roar echoed through the hallways.

"On second thought, maybe I'm better off in here." Ben continued. "Those zombies aren't the only things lurking around out there, you know. Now don't take this the wrong way, but could you maybe go somewhere else before you lead whatever made that sound right to me?"

It was obvious that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Ben, so Liquid was about to leave, when he started to hear some loud footsteps. A few seconds later something big came around the corner beyond the chainlink door, so out of reflex he ran into the first open cell and dove under the bed. Scooting against the wall so that he was hidden by the shadows, Liquid was filled with dread as the chainlink door was pulled open, but not by the trenchcoat monster that he had faced before.

This thing was not quite as big, but it was a lot more frightening. It looked mostly like a man, but its right arm had mutated into something that looked more like a claw, and then part of its upper arm opened to reveal a large eyeball that looked around for a second as it walked into the holding area. Part of its torso had also changed to the same off-red colored flesh, and it roared as it stopped to look into the cell where Liquid was hiding. Thankfully it didn't see him, instead turning and moving to the locked cell, but Ben didn't seem afraid.

"I'm safe in here." He said to it with a kinda shakey voice. "Yep, this cell will protect me from anything."

The monster just looked at him for a second, and then it grabbed the door with its claw before ripping it off its hinges. Ben screamed as it walked in, and Liquid took this time to roll out from under the bed where he was hiding. He then crept out of the cell as the reporter's screams continued, and he was just going through the chainlink door, when everything went quiet as something flew past him.

The object went right over his shoulder and smacked into the wall before landing on the floor, finally rolling to a stop against Liquid's boot. It took him a second to realize what he was looking at, and then he gasped as his brain figured out that it was Ben's severed head. Quickly running through the chainlink door and slamming it shut, Liquid looked in horror at the now blood-stained walls of the last cell where the monster was now standing.

They just looked at each other for a second, and then it roared, causing Liquid to scream and press the button to lock the door before he started running. A few seconds later he heard a metal shearing sound, and he didn't need to look back to know that it was through the chainlink door. Even in his panic to get away, Liquid remembered that the parking garage was full of zombies, so his only hope was to go through the side door that he had seen earlier.

Thankfully it was only a short distance away, and it was unlocked, so he ran through and locked it behind him, not that this was going to help him very much. He had hoped that this was going to lead to another hallway with lots of possible venues of escape, but instead he found himself in a long store room that had been practically cleaned out. The only noteworthy feature was what looked like a maintenance entrance to the sewer, but the manhole cover was shut.

The monster roared again as Liquid ran over to the manhole, and it wasn't locked or anything, but it was heavy and rusted, making it really difficult to open. In fact, after lifting the latch he had only gotten it open far enough to get his fingers underneath, when the locked door was suddenly ripped off its hinges. The monster tossed the door away as Liquid struggled to pull open the rusted and squeaky cover, but then he stopped for a second as the monster held up Ben's severed head.

"That's, um, very nice." Liquid said nervously. "You know, you could, um, shrink that down and wear it on a necklace, so, uh... why don't you go do that?"

The monster roared as it tossed the head so hard that it was smashed into mush against the wall behind him, and Liquid gave a mighty yell as he pulled harder on the cover. The monster dragged its claw along the wall, making sparks as it walked toward him, and it was preparing for the kill, when the cover was finally opened.

Liquid dove headfirst into the darkness, just barely avoiding a slash that would've probably cleaved him in two, and then he hit the water. His first thought was that he was going to get a soft landing for once, but unfortunately the water was only about a foot deep, which didn't help that much with the concrete beneath it.

Coughing from the water and groaning from the pain from impact, Liquid got to his knees and looked up to see that the monster was looking at him through the hole. Fortunately it was too big to come after him, so it roared again before angrily stomping away. This meant that he was safe for the moment, so he took a few minutes to catch his breath before getting up and readying the shotgun.

He might have gotten away from the latest monster, but now he was in the sewers, and there were probably even more nasty things waiting for him in the darkness. So he checked to make sure that it was fully loaded, and then began to trudge through the shallow water.


	15. Ch 15 Teamwork

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 15: Teamwork**

Slowly sloshing his way through the foot-deep water, Liquid kept his shotgun ready as he moved farther down the dimly lit sewer tunnel. Actually, he was surprised that there were any lights down there at all, and he was very thankful for them when he began to hear something moving behind him. It was a subtle sound that stopped the same time that he stopped moving, started up when he moved again, and finally fell silent when he stopped for a second time.

"One, two." He counted silently to himself. "Three."

Quickly spinning around, the narrow tunnel was lit up as a thunderous echo came from firing the shotgun, and in the flash of light he saw... absolutely nothing as his shell hit the far wall. Keeping the weapon ready, he kept looking toward the far wall for a second, and then he looked forward again, but still there was nothing there.

Again the sound resumed as he moved forward, only to vanish again as he stopped, but then some kind of strange liquid dripped down from the ceiling, hissing and bubbling as it hit the water. Liquid looked up in response to this, and his shotgun went off as a dark hulking mass dropped down on top of him. There are no words to describe the womanly shrill that came out of his mouth as he was knocked onto his back by the eight-legged beast, but they were drowned out as he emptyed the weapon while being able to see his reflection in all of its eight eyes.

The creature went limp just before it was about to sink its long dripping fangs into him, and still screaming, Liquid kicked its body several times to get out from under it before scooting over to the other side of the tunnel. It took a few minutes for his hands to stop shaking as he looked at the dead spider that was the size of a damn taxi, and even longer for him to be able to reload. He hadn't seen anything like that during his last punishment, and he never wanted to again.

Eventually being able to pull himself to his feet, Liquid resumed slowly walking down the tunnel, making sure to keep an eye on the spider until he rounded a corner. There was now a staircase in front of him that lead up to a door, and he didn't see any more spiders on the walls or anything, so he ran up the stairs. The door wasn't locked, so he ran through and then had to stop in his tracks as he found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol.

Wanting to kick himself for running into yet another psycho who was probably going to try and kill him, Liquid's eyes moved down the pistol and along the arm of it's female owner, until sighing with relief as he realized who it was.

"Liquid?" Claire asked in near astonishment as she lowered the gun. "How in the hell are you still alive?"

"I don't know." He replied as he slung the shotgun. "I fell down a coal-chute to get away from that big guy, I managed to get a keycard from one of those tongue creatures, some crazy bitch kicked my ass, and finally I dove into a spider-filled sewer to escape from some freaky looking thing with an eye on its arm. So how are _you_?"

"I'm fine. There weren't any zombies in the stairwell that I used to get here, but I _did_ break a nail when I pushed a button on the vending machine, so don't think for a _second_ that I came out of this unscathed."

She turned around and started down the passage, and after watching her walk for a second, Liquid followed. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of thick concrete, and there were pressure meters along the wall as well as heavy pipes, meaning that this place was probably either a sewer maintenance facility or maybe a sewage processing plant.

Either way, he was glad to be out of danger for the moment, and it was nice to see Claire again... at least from_ this _angle. However, all of these good feelings went away as she led him around the corner to a dead end, where two other people were standing in front of an open wall-duct. For a split-second he thought that maybe these others were fellow survivors who would help in the fight, but then his heart sank as he realized that the woman and little girl both looked _very_ familiar.

"You!" Ada yelled as she drew her pistol. "You left me there to _die_, you son of a bitch!"

"You're right, I'm sorry." Liquid replied. "Maybe you _were_ worth the bullet."

"Claire, this is the asshole who shot at me." Sherry said while pointing at him. "And you should've _heard_ the things he said he was going to do to you two and my mom at the same time. By the way, what's _A2M_?"

Claire gasped and smacked Liquid in the face, to which he responded to by smacking her right back. Suddenly his eyes went wide as Ada's foot came up between his legs from behind, but he didn't have any time to react before Claire's fist collided with his eye. Ada then slammed her knee into his stomach before twisting his arm behind his back, and both women pushed him forward so that the top half of his body got stuck inside the duct.

"Looks like we found our volunteer." Ada laughed as they pushed him in further. "What a man."

"Volunteer?!" Liquid demanded. "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Well, we're kinda stuck here." Claire explained. "So we needed someone to go through the duct and see if there's anything on the other side that might help us."

"And you're an asshole who shoots at kids and hits women." Sherry continued. "That makes you the perfect choice, you asshole. So get in there!"

Liquid tried to move back, but he was a bit big for a duct this size, and then he screamed as he felt all three of them kicking him in the ass. They kicked and pushed him so that he moved into the duct an inch at a time. It was hard to breathe, and harder not to cry each time one of them kicked him in the groin, but this was a really short duct, so he was pushed to the end just as he realized that this part of the duct was a lot higher up that the other side.

He screamed again as he fell out, but this was stopped a couple second later as he crashed onto a pile of old wooden crates that broke his fall. The pain was just starting to go away, when he heard a surprised scream coming from the duct. Honestly, Liquid hoped that they had been attacked by a monster, but there was no gunfire, and he could hear all three of them arguing up until the moment that a screaming Claire came sliding out of the duct.

Liquid groaned in agony as she landed on top of him, and she wasted no time in stepping on him in order to get to her feet. She went over to the wall, but the duct was way to high for even both of them to reach, especially since all the crates had been broken.

"Hey!" She called. "You can't do this to me!"

"We certainly can, Claire." Sherry's voice replied. "Well, we _were_ going to take you with us through the other door that I found, but I just can't _bare_ the thought of keeping you two lovebirds apart."

"Now you two have fun." Ada's voice laughed as they could hear the cover being put back on the duct.


	16. Ch 16 Sewage Disposal Facility

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 16: Sewage Disposal Facility**

Claire might have continued screaming at the now unreachable air duct, if not for Liquid's sudden burst of laughter as he got to his feet. So instead of yelling, she tried to stack a whole bunch of the broken crates and then get on top of them in order to jump to the hole. This only resulted in more laughter from Liquid as she crashed to the floor.

"What's wrong, Claire?" He asked as she got up. "Did your little friends stab you in the back and leave you behind?"

"Fuck you, Liquid!" She yelled. "Everything in my life was perfect until I met you! I had a full-ride at college, my brother Chris paid for everything else that I needed, I had lots of friends, and the only guys who ever hit on me were _good looking_! But thanks to you and this God damn city, everything's fallen to shit, so I'm just gonna kill you and be done with it!"

She drew her pistol, but Liquid grabbed it out of her hand, and used it as a fist-pack as he slugged her in the stomach. Next he grabbed her by the hair as he sat down on the remains of one of the crates, and pulled her forward so that she was thrown over his knee. She tried to get away, but he held her down as he activated the shock baton, and then Claire screamed as he hit her on the ass with it. He hit her like this a few times until he got tired of the screaming, and then he pushed her away so that she fell onto the floor.

"How'd that feel, you precious little princess?" Liquid asked as she rubbed her rear in pain. "You think you're hot shit because you went to college? Well, I went to college, too, and it was _easy_. You think you're perfect because everyone likes you? Well, its a good thing you're hot, because your _personality_ sucks."

He put the shock baton back on his belt as he got up, and then she looked up at him when he stood over her. Liquid then dropped her pistol on the floor next to her, and offered his hand to help her up a second later.

"I can't fight zombies and watch you at the same time, Claire." He explained. "So we're gonna settle this right now by letting you make a choice. Now, you can either grab that pistol which _will_ result in one of us dying, or you can take my hand and we can work together to get out of this city alive. It's up to you, Claire."

She looked at the pistol, and then at him, repeating this process several times before sighing deeply as she took his hand. Liquid also sighed with relief as he helped her up, since at least for now, he had a partner he could trust. It was more than likely that these issues would come up again, but that could be worried about later.

"Alright,_ partner_, let's go." He said as he turned toward the only door. "And don't forget your pistol."

He started walking as she reached down to get her weapon, but then Claire gasped before running around in front of him to block his path.

"Hey, the clip's been taken out!" She exclaimed. "You gave me an empty gun!"

"Well, yeah." Liquid replied. "You think I'd_ really _give you a fair chance to shoot me... that's cute. Here you go."

He tossed her the missing clip, which she quickly put back into her gun. Then Liquid walked around her and was about to try the door, when she blocked his path again.

"So what would've happened if I grabbed the gun?" Claire asked.

"I would've shot you in the head and moved on." He replied. "But no one ever got anywhere by living in the past, so let's move on."

He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before stepping around her and opening the door. The first thing Liquid noticed was the night sky, which was cool because it meant that they were outside, but then the smell got to his nose, and he had to put his hand over his mouth to keep from throwing up.

The only path forward was a narrow walkway that stretched across what looked like a gigantic pit, and all around the edges of the pit he could see pipes and hear the hum of machines working. The pit itself was filled with a greenish brown substance that bubbled and hissed, and now there was no doubt that they were at some kind of wastewater processing plant.

There was only a single door at the other end of the walkway, and Claire had the same reaction to the smell that he did, so they quickly ran toward it. Thankfully this door was unlocked as well, so they rushed inside and closed the door behind them. This took care of most of the smell, so that was a good thing, but now they were in another small room where the only feature was a door.

"Wow, that's some door." Claire said.

She was right; it was huge and heavy, more like an emergency bulkhead on a submarine than something you would find, well, anywhere else. Problem was, that there was no visible way to open it, aside from a small panel on the wall to the right. It was already open, and there were four slots for plugs to be set in, but one was missing. Funny thing was that they all looked like pieces from a chess set, and...

"No fucking way." Liquid said as he reached into his sidepack.

He fumbled through the bullets and things until finally bringing his hand back out with the strange plug that he had found back in the library.

"I can't believe this." He continued. "If I hadn't accidently fallen through the floor in that one specific spot in the library, we would be stuck here. I mean, there would be no way to go forward at all. How in the hell is someone supposed to know that unless they literally walk around every square inch on the floor and...

"Just plug in the damn thing!" Claire interupted. "Who cares how you got it? The important thing is you got it, right?"

Liquid shrugged before putting the plug into the slot, and then the heavy door made a loud clicking sound before starting to swing open. They expected to find another tunnel or walkway, but the back of the door was flat and painted like something that would be found in a normal building. There was no light coming from inside, but the small part of the floor that they could see was carpeted.

There was nowhere else to go, so they very carefully stepped through the door, feeling along the textured wall for a lightswitch. However, they had not yet found one when the heavy door suddenly slammed shut behind them, leaving them in darkness.


	17. Ch 17 Chief Irons

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 17: Chief Irons**

Fumbling in the darkness for a lightswitch, Liquid and Claire both tripped over something atleast once as they made their way around this room. Eventually they got the idea to just follow eachother around to decrease the risk of injury, which led to a few more falls as they tried to find eachother, but the good news was that there were no sounds of monsters or zombies.

Finally after what seemed like forever, Liquid's hand passed over a switch, causing the room to fill with light. However, the first thing they saw was a monster's fanged face right in front of them, causing both to scream as they jumped into eachother's arms. Liquid expected to be attacked and mauled by the monster, but nothing happened, so he opened his eyes and saw that it was not a monster, but a stuffed tiger.

Looking around the room, he discovered that this was some kind of hunter's trophy gallery, with all kinds of animals put on display. There was also a box of shotgun shells, which Liquid quickly added to his sidepack.

"How can anyone do this?" Claire asked as she looked at the animals. "Killing animals is wrong, and there's no excuse for it."

"Oh, so you're a vegetarian then?" Liquid asked. "I can agree with you about the whole trophy thing because that's just weird, but how would you get meat if you didn't kill animals? Do you think that hamburgers grow on trees or something? Don't get me wrong, that would _rock_ if they did, but let's stay in reality for a second."

Claire started to say something, but apparently couldn't find any words to argue with him. There was also no more time to argue this point as they both heard something coming from the next room. It sounded like a voice, and it was... singing?

"What the hell is going on in there?" Claire asked.

"And now, my pretty." The man in the other room declared clearly. "You and me are going to have a little fun."

More out of reflex than anything, Liquid went over to the only other door and kicked it open as he readied his shotgun, and what he found in the next room was disturbing as he and Claire rushed in. There was an older, heavyset man standing behind a young woman who was laying face down on his desk, but there was blood all over the girl's top, and she didn't appear to be breathing. The man's pants were also around his ankles.

"What the fuck?" Liquid asked.

"Good day to you." The man replied plesently. "I'm Brian Irons, Chief of the RPD, and this is the Mayor's daughter. You see, he left her in my care, and in exchange for protecting her, we had sex twice a week. But then she died... and it became _three_ times a week."

Claire started to say something, but then she put her hand over her mouth while running for the trashcan, where she completely lost her lunch. Liquid, however, didn't take his eyes off the Chief, even though he was starting to feel a little sick, himself.

"I realize that most people don't agree with my life-choices." Irons continued as he stroked the dead girl's hair. "If it helps, you can think of her as a very realistic blowup-doll... of course, she _does_ get cold sometimes, but a few minutes with a hairdryer will fix that right up."

Now it was Liquid's turn to run over to the trashcan, where he shoved Claire out of the way so that he could lose his own lunch. The Chief then laughed as he ran around the desk and grabbed the shock baton from Liquid's belt, bringing it down onto his back before he could do anything to stop him. Sparks flew as he hit both him and Claire with the baton several times until they couldn't fight back anymore, and then he grabbed all their weapons.

"Yeah, that's right, hail to the Chief!" He exclaimed as he aimed a pistol at them. "Now both of you get up, and move behind the desk."

It was a struggle to get up after being hit by the baton so many times, and it was even harder with Irons kicking them every few seconds. Eventually by helping each other they managed to get up, and they were also able to move around behind the desk by leaning on each other. The Chief then pressed a switch that was hidden under his desk-lamp, causing the wall behind them to slide open.

"Sorry, babe." He said to the dead girl. "It was fun while it lasted, but I just need someone a little, um, _fresher_... you understand."

With no weapons, and a gun pointed at them, Liquid and Claire had no choice but to start down the hidden passage as Irons motioned for them to get moving. The secret entrance closed behind them once the Chief was through, and now they were inside a long tunnel that was made of stone and illuminated by a row of metal torches on the wall. Liquid was going to grab one to use as a weapon, but then he realized that they were bolted down.

"Now, head on through that door there." Irons ordered. "Slowly now... I don't want to damage you any more than needed."

There was a set of heavy metal doors at the end of the tunnel, so Liquid pushed them open, and the Chief moved them into a room that looked like something straight out of the Spanish Inquisition. There were torture devices like the rack, there were restraint tables, and there were also plenty of bloodstains and random body parts lying around the room.

"Ah, home sweet home." Irons continued as he shut and locked the door. "Now, which one of you wants to be my new sex-doll?"

Liquid and Claire instantly pointed at each other, and this caused Irons to laugh as he moved around the room to a shelf in the corner where a whole bunch of nasty looking devices were displayed. He had to stand on top of a trap-door cover to get them, and Liquid hoped that he would be heavy enough to break through, but this did not happen. Instead, he set down their weapons except for the pistol in his hand, and started grabbing devices.

"Two volunteers, huh?" Irons continued. "Well, I guess I'll just have to decide which of you I'd rather bone, and then shoot the other one. Now let's see; _eenie, meenie, miney, mo..._

He moved the gun to aim at each of them while saying the nursery rhyme, but the shock baton's residual effects still made it too hard to move for Liquid to do anything about their situation. It was easier than before, but it would still be a few minutes before he was back to full strength. Obviously Claire still felt the same way, since she was having trouble just standing on her own.

"_If he hollars, let him go_." Irons continued. "_Eenie, meenie, miney_...

The final word of the nursery rhyme turned into a scream as a large red clawed hand suddenly broke through the trap door cover and grabbed the Chief's leg. The whole cover then shattered as the arm pulled him down into the newly revealed hole, causing his gun to go off, putting a bullet hole in the wall right between Liquid and Claire's heads.

Irons next scream was drowned out by the same roar that Liquid had heard in the holding cells, and then both he and Claire screamed as the top half of the Chief's body was suddenly tossed back up through the hole. Suddenly feeling a lot stronger, Liquid and Claire ran back to the heavy metal doors, but they just wouldn't open.

"We're trapped!" Claire yelled. "What do we do?!"

The material was too strong for any of their weapons to get through, there were no chemicals or tools in the room that were useful. The only logical way to open this door was to get the key from the Chief, and the key was probably with his lower half, if it even exsisted anymore.

"I'm sorry to say this, Claire." Liquid replied as he looked at the hole. "But I'm afraid we're going to have to go down... _there_."


	18. Ch 18 Boss Fight

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 18: Boss Fight**

Staying as low to the ground as they could, Liquid and Claire scooted their way across the floor to the hole that the Chief had been pulled through. There was a ladder that went down to yet another narrow walkway, and below that was what appeared to be a bottomless pit. What they couldn't see was the monster or even hear its footsteps.

"Maybe it left?" Claire asked.

"Maybe." Liquid replied. "But to either get the keys or go forward, we have to go down there."

Taking a moment to reclaim their lost weapons and check to make sure that everything was loaded, Liquid took a few deep breaths before dropping down and sliding down the ladder like James Kirk. Immediatly spinning around and readying the shotgun once he reach the bottom, he looked to find that they were alone.

The narrow walkway extended a good distance before curving to where some of the lights had gone out, but they could see that it ended just beyond the curve, probably at a ladder or something. The bottom half of Irons was also missing, which meant that they had no choice but to go forward, so they did, very slowly once Claire reached the bottom of the ladder.

"I think its gone." Liquid said.

Suddenly the same monstrous roar filled the cavern they were in, and then the man-monster thing stepped into the light. The eye on its arm opened for a second before closing, and the next thing the monster did was rip a section off of the guardrail. It tossed the metal piece at them, making Liquid and Claire hit the floor. However, the metal bar flew overhead way higher than they were tall, and embedded itself into the frame of the trap door, blocking it too much for either of them to climb back out.

"Shoot it!" Liquid yelled as he got up. "Shoot it for your life!"

He fired the shotgun as Claire got up, and the shells slammed into the monster's chest as the bullets from Claire's pistol peppered its arms and face. It roared again as it stumbled backwards for a second, but then all of its wounds filled in before it pulled off another section of the guardrail. The two of them reloaded and emptied their weapons into it a second time, but the results were the same, and the monster's human head grinned at them the next time they reloaded.

"Well, this just... sucks." Liquid said as it took a step forward. "Suggestions?"

"I don't care what you do, just do it." Claire replied. "And if you manage to kill that thing... I'll sleep with you."

Liquid's eyes widened as his lust for her grew, and suddenly he gained the strength of _ten_ Liquid's, plus two. Slinging the shotgun he ran toward the beast, ducking down so its attack wouldn't hit him the least. Springing back up, he gave it a shove, his low center of gravity versus the monster's above. Stumbling backwards, the monster did roar, as it fell from the walkway, to be seen no more. Down into the darkness, the demon quickly fell, to which Liquid added: "_I'll see you in hell_."

"Holy shit." Claire whispered.

She walked over to him as Liquid pounded his chest while letting out a Tarzan call. Then he cleared his throat and spat over the edge before giving the finger to the darkness.

"Hey, don't feel to bad down there!" He called. "Nemesis fell for the same thing! Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

Again there was only silence to greet him, which caused him to hang his head in disapointment. But all was not lost, since now that he had defeated the monster he would get to have his way with Claire. So he walked over to her for a kiss, and was more than surprised when she slapped him in the mouth.

"Nice try, Liquid, but no." She said as she put her hands on her hips. "I said I'd sleep with you if you killed the monster, but all you did was knock it into a bottomless pit. I need to see a body if you want to get your hands on all _this_."

Liquid's jaw dropped for a second as he realized that she had gotten him in a technicality. At this point there was only one thing for him to do, so he came forward, and Claire screamed as he lifted her up over his head. She was a little heavier than she looked, so this feat took a lot of effort, but eventually he was able to turn toward the edge of the walkway.

"You wanna see the body, huh?" He asked while straining to keep her up. "Then how about I send you down there to see it?"

Claire screamed again, but then a new sound made both of them stop what they were doing. It was the sound of metal being sheared, and they both looked back to see the piece of guardrail being pulled out of the trap door. There was only one thing around that had the strength to do something like that, and Liquid slowly set Claire down just as the trench-coat monster from before started to climb down the ladder.

"Truce?" Liquid asked as they backed away.

"Yeah." Claire replied. "Now let's get outa here!"

They turned around to run just as the monster reached the bottom of the ladder, and its heavy footsteps shook the walkway as they rounded the corner to where another ladder went down. There was no time to investigate, since the monster was right behind them, so they climbed down, and found themselves standing in front of a very heavy floodgate. Claire pressed the release button as Liquid shot the monster to try and slow it down, but nothing was working.

The door slowly opened as the monster climbed down the ladder, and Liquid shot the release button just before he and Claire ducked inside. Once through, she hit the button to close it behind them, and thankfully the monster moved slow enough to not reach them before the floodgate closed and locked.

"That should hold it." Liquid said. "I shot the controls out there just to make sure."

Suddenly the walls shook, most likely from the monster trying to break the door down, and the metal creaked and groaned, even bending inward a little, but it held. After a few more hits the shaking stopped, and they could hear the monster's heavy footsteps as it returned to the ladder to find another way around, so they were safe for the moment.

"You ok?" Liquid asked.

"Yeah, I think so." She replied. "Still not sleeping with you."

Liquid wanted to yell at her or hit her or something, but then decided that he was too tired from having to escape from not one, but _two_ monsters. Water could be heard flowing nearby, which meant that they were probably back in the sewers, and again there was only one path to follow, so Liquid reloaded his shotgun and they moved toward the only other door.


	19. Ch 19 The Sewers

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 19: The Sewers**

Again finding himself trudging through knee-deep water, Liquid led the way as he and Claire went down the tunnel. The sewers of Raccoon City were surprisingly well lit, which would allow them to see if anything was about to attack, but thankfully there weren't any zombies or monsters around.

"So, what's the plan?" Claire asked as they walked. "Do you think we can get out of the city through these sewers?"

"Beats the hell outa me." Liquid replied. "I don't even know if there _is_ a way out of the city, let alone if we can get to it through here."

"Thanks, Liquid, way to fill me with confidence."

He shrugged, and then they continued on for about a minute before coming to a side door. The path ahead of it was a dead end, so it was the only way to go, but to their surprise the door opened right before he grabbed the knob. He and Claire jumped back, expecting a zombie to come shambling out after them, but then Liquid groaned in dissapointment as he saw who was actually there.

"How the hell did you two assholes survive?" Sherry asked as they put away their weapons. "Ada said there was no way that a stupid fucking cop with no brain and some prissy little cheerleader with fake tits could last for more than five minutes."

"Fake tits?!" Claire exclaimed angrily as she came forward. "You think I have _fake tits_?!"

"Everyone just settle down." Liquid interupted as he walked between them. "Now, I know that everyone's shit is all emotional right now, so let's just take a deep breath and start over."

Everyone reluctantly agreed to this, and each took a moment to calm down by breathing deeply, even Claire. Liquid smiled and nodded to both of them once he saw that this plan to keep the peace was working, but then he stepped forward, and Sherry screamed as he grabbed her by the hair and used it to lift her off the ground.

"Alright, you little troll." He said sternly as he brought her up to his eye level. "I'm gonna ask you some questions, and you're gonna answer them, or I'm gonna flush your ass down the damn toilet. First: Where is your little friend, Ada? Second: What sick German freak raised you to be such a little God damn monster-child?"

"Oh, I'm _really _scared." Sherry replied as she folded her arms. "I'm not gonna tell you shit, and you know why? Because you're a _joke_, and even a complete loser like you wouldn't do _anything_ to harm an adorable little kid like me."

Sherry started laughing as Liquid looked around for a second, and she even made faces at him as he set her down next to the wall. However, her laughter turned into a scream as he pushed the button on the wall to open the emergency storm drain that he had set her in front of, and she was quickly swept away by the current.

"Bye, bye, Sherry!" He called as the drain closed behind her. "That felt good."

The side door the little girl had come out of was still open, so he walked in and found himself inside of what looked like some kind of management office. There were meters and pipes all along the walls, along with machines that were constantly pumping the water, and the only other way out seemed to be a small open-cage maintenance lift in the corner. The only way it could go was down, which would take them deeper into the sewers, but there were no other options.

"Liquid, wait a second." Claire said, stopping him. "I need to ask you something, and be honest... do my tits look fake to you?"

"Are you serious?" He replied as he turned back to her. "Claire, she only said that to get under your skin. I'd bang you regardless of whether you've got implants or not, and that's all that matters, right?"

He turned away and started toward the elevator, but had to stop again as Claire walked around him to block his path. Her eyebrows narrowed as she glared at him while putting her hands on her hips, and Liquid had long ago given up hope of ever being able to understand women, so it was just better to say nothing.

"You did _not_ answer my question." She continued harshly. "Do... my... tits... look... fake... to... you?"

She was going to hate him no matter what he did, so Liquid decided to make it count by reaching out and squeezing her chest with both hands, making her gasp.

"Holy shit, they _are_ real!" He exclaimed in disbelief.

Claire just stood there as if not sure how to react to what had just happened, but then her brain must have restarted, because the next thing she did was punch him in the mouth as hard as she could. This time her hit actually threw him a little off balance, so she came forward, grabbing him by the throat with both hands and trying to strangle him while pushing him backwards.

They ended up standing on the maintenance elevator, and Liquid's back hit the button as the guardrail brought them to a stop. The elevator started down a second later, and he had recovered by this time, so he grabbed her wrists and squeezed them until she cried out as she lost her grip. He continued to overpower her as he brought her arms toward her sides, but then she leaned back before ramming her head into his, causing him to let go as they both stumbled backwards.

"Oh God, that hurt!" Claire yelled as she held her head.

"Yeah, you_ headbutted me_, genius!" He yelled back while also holding his head. "No one walks away from those unharmed!"

It took a few seconds for both of them to recover, and by that time the lift stopped at the end of another tunnel that went a good distance to what looked like another lift platform, while also branching off to the right at about halfway. Apparently Claire was still angry about getting groped, so she moved forward and started choking him again, only to stop suddenly as he took the pistol out of her holster and pressed the barrel into her stomach.

"Is it_ really _that big a deal that I groped you?" He asked while pulling the hammer back.

She quickly shook her head, and Liquid uncocked the pistol before putting it back into her holster. He then kissed her on the forehead, and was about to step off the lift, and there was an electronic humming sound as another lift came down at the other end of the tunnel. They both reached for their weapons as they saw who was on it, but then they stopped as a bullet struck the wall next to them.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Ada asked as her lift came to a stop. "And more importantly... what should I _do_ with you?"


	20. Ch 20 Annette

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 20: Annette**

"Now put your hands up." Ada continued. "And walk toward me very slowly."

She kept the gun aimed at them as Liquid and Claire stepped off of the maintenance lift, and for now they had no choice but to do as she said. So they started walking down the long narrow pathway as Ada came toward them, and apparently she wanted to meet them in the middle for something.

"Ada, why are you doing this?" Liquid asked as they got closer. "Don't you realize that we have a better chance of surviving if we all work together?"

"Maybe." She coldly replied. "And that would be fine if I was _only_ looking to survive, but I've got bigger things to worry about, and for that I need bullet-shields."

"What could be bigger than survival?" Claire asked. "I understand you not wanting to work with Liquid, hell I probably don't like him much more than you do, but I've seen some of the bigger monsters around here, and you do _not_ want to face them alone."

Ada seemed unmoved by her appeal as Claire and Liquid reached the middle of the passage where it branched off to the right, and to their surprise the door at the end opened just as they were getting past the corner. A woman with short blonde hair walked through just as they turned to face her, and then she gasped before taking a pistol out from under her white labcoat.

She opened fire on them without saying a word, her first two bullets getting closer to Claire as they hit the wall. Liquid then surprised even himself as he shoved Claire behind the wall so that the third bullet hit the wall instead of her head, but there was nothing he could do for himself as the fourth and fifth bullets hit him in the upper back and leg.

He groaned in agony as he collapsed to the ground, and the blonde woman ran back through the door a few seconds later. Ada immediatly took off after her, and Liquid tried to get up, but only got about half way before crying out again as he fell over sideways. Claire knelt down to help him sit against the wall, but then she gasped as she took her hand away from his back to see that it was covered with blood.

"What do I do?" She stammered. "I-I don't know what to do."

"Stay calm." He groaned. "I need a green herb, but I don't think I should be moving."

Claire nodded, and then got up to begin her search. She already knew that there were none back the way they came, so she would be forced to follow Ada and that other woman through the door.

"Claire." Liquid groaned as she started off. "Be careful."

She gave a kind of weak smile before opening the door, and now the sound of running water could be heard as she found herself in another branching sewer tunnel that went left and right. The water she had to step into was a little over a foot deep, and she saw Ada vanishing over the top of a ladder to the left, so that's the way she went.

The ladder went up to some kind of large ventilation shaft that had a nasty looking fan on each end, but the blades were stopped, so she was able to crawl between them. There was another ladder on the other side, and Claire was just starting down it when there was an electronic beeping sound as the fan blades started up again.

This meant that she wouldn't be able to go back the way she came, unless she found the controls, but that was not going to be easy in a place this big. It looked like a larger version of the water treatment plant she had passed through earlier, and she was on a walkway that was far above a pool of some kind. It didn't smell quite as bad as the one from before, but that wasn't saying much.

There was some kind of control station up ahead, but when she got there she found that it was smashed, like everything else around the city, but there _was_ a dark green plant sitting in a pot in the corner. Quickly uprooting the plant and carefully folding it up to fit into her sidepack, Claire took posession of the healing plant.

"Well, that was... surprisingly easy." She said to herself.

"Are you sure about that?" A female voice said from behind her as a weapon clicked. "Put your hands up, and turn around slowly."

Claire hung her head and put up her hands as she turned around to see the blonde woman who had shot Liquid.

"Thought you could sneak up on me, huh?" The woman continued. "You and your _Umbrella_ friends thought you could just come in here and take my husband's work for yourselves, did you? Well, little did you know that I am Dr. Annette Birkin, and that I have hidden the G-Virus sample so well that no one will ever find it."

She put her hands on her hips as she threw her head back for an evil villain laugh that echoed throughout the facility.

"You're not the first, you know." Annette added. "A squad ambushed my husband William in his lab, and their leader put a clown nose on him so that it would squeak every time he punched him... it was awful. Then they shot him and left, but he managed to inject himself with a second G-Virus sample. Sure, he lost his humanity and became a horrible monster, but he got revenge, and that's all that matters."

"Hold on a second." Claire said before Annette could laugh again. "You said your last name is Birkin, right? So, you're a mad scientist who makes viruses, and your husband turned himself into a rampaging monster? No wonder Sherry's so fucked up."

Annette's eyes widened at the mention of Sherry's name, and suddenly she came forward to grab Claire, but was stopped as Ada dropped down from the fricken sky and clubbed her in the back of the head with her pistol. Annette collapsed like a bunch of broccoli, and Ada quickly searched through her pockets, but seemed dissapointed that there was nothing in them.

"Thanks for getting her to talk." Ada said calmly as she faced Claire. "At least now I know she doesn't carry the sample around with her, and as a reward for all your hard work, you're going for a ride."

Claire was about to ask what she meant by that, but was interupted as Ada kicked her in the stomach, making her bend over the guardrail. She then wrapped her arms around Claire's legs and lifted, making Claire scream as she tumbled over the edge. This scream was stopped a few seconds later as she crashed into the filthy water.

Coughing and choking, she struggled to swim over toward some kind of observation platform, and had a hard time pulling herself up onto the concrete slab. Once back on her feet, she found that the ladder going up the concrete wall had been destroyed, leaving her trapped except for an air duct that was way to small for her.

"Hey, how did _you_ get down here?" A voice said from in the duct.

Claire knelt down and saw Sherry inside the duct where it branched off into several different directions.

"Sherry?" Claire asked. "You have a _real_ disfunctional family, you know that?"

"Maybe so." The little girl replied with a shrug. "But at least _I'm_ not trapped in there with Fluffy. See you later, asshole."

Sherry vanished down the air duct, and Claire was about to call her to come back, when she heard the water start to churn behind her. So she slowly turned around, and screamed as the creature emerged in a huge splash of water.


	21. Ch 21 The 4th Survivor

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 21: The 4th Survivor**

Between his wounds and how much blood he had lost, Liquid drifted in and out of consiousness as he remained sitting agains the wall. Suddenly he heard a scream, and while he usually ignored any kind of distress call, this time it made his eyes snap open as the sound echoed down the tunnels.

"Claire?!" He groaned as he tried to get up. "Damn it... no one makes that girl scream but me!"

His first two efforts to get up ended with failure as he slumped back to the floor, but the third time he actually made it to his hands and knees before falling on his face. His skin was getting a bit pale, and it was hard to move or even think, but if he didn't save Claire then he would never get to bang her.

Using what little brainpower he had left, Liquid came up with a desperate and rather stupid plan to wake himself up. Using his uninjured arm, he groaned as he took the shock baton off his belt, and then screamed as he struck himself with it. Sparks flew as the weapon activated, and although it hurt like hell, his vision suddenly came into focus as he found the strength to pull himself to his feet.

Putting the shock baton back on his belt, he stumbled toward the door that he had seen Claire go through, and almost fell down again as he stepped into the water on the other side. There were two paths he could take, left and right, but the left path ended with a fan spinning on top of a ladder, so he was forced to go right.

Trudging through the water was a lot more difficult than it should have been, thanks to his wounds, and Liquid had to repeatedly stop to rest for a second, especially when he the tunnel went around a corner, and he saw that he still had a long way to go before he reached, well, anything. Another scream echoed down the tunnel along with the sound of gunfire, making him push himself to go faster.

"I'm coming, Claire!" He yelled as he continued forward. "Damn woman better appreciate this."

Soon he came to another junction in the tunnel; a set of metal double-doors to the side, and a waterfall that blocked the path ahead. The path behind the waterfall was probably the way to get out of the city, which meant that Claire was through the side door, and it was just starting to turn toward it when a figure suddenly jumped out through the waterfall.

"Ha haaaaa!" He yelled as he landed on his feet. "You just got _ambushed_, mother fucker!"

He was in full riot-armor, complete with a helmet and gasmask over his face, but more importantly he was holding a full size assault rifle which was now aimed at Liquid. He actually kind of reminded him of those Umbrella Secret Service guys that he had killed outside the RPD, but this one didn't seem quite so bland or forgetable.

"Who are you?" Liquid asked as he struggled to remain standing.

"Who, me?" The man replied. "I'm Umbrella Special Agent Hunk a.k.a. _Mr. Death _a.k.a. _The 4th Survivor _a.k.a. _Quib-Quib_. Don't ask about that last one... here, put this on."

Hunk came corward as he took a red clown nose out of his sidepack, and then he stuck it on Liquid's nose before punching him in the face. There was a high-pitch _squeak_ as Liquid was knocked onto his back. The water was deep enough for him to go all the way under as he fell, but then Hunk slung his assault rifle before grabbing Liquid by his shirt and pulling him back up.

"_I'll_ ask the questions around here, you little butt-plug!" Hunk yelled before there was nother _squeak_ as he punched Liquid. "_He-he_, I never get tired of that... now get on your feet!"

He pulled Liquid to his feet, and then shoved him toward the side doors. Once they were open, he kicked Liquid in the rear, causing another _squeak_ as his face hit the floor, and Hunk kept laughing as he made Liquid stand again. The only feature of this large concrete room was a narrow bridge that went across the darkness to another door, so of course they started across it.

"Ah, what a beautiful day." Hunk said as they walked. "I got the G-Virus sample in my sidepack, I made that Birkin guy watch as I nailed his wife, and, well, I hope this _Claire_ you were yelling about earlier is hot, because I'm gonna do the same thing to you. But don't worry, once I'm done with her, I promise to shoot you before you can turn yourself into a monster."

"That's mighty generous of you." Liquid replied.

"I know, right? I've got a big heart... now open that door, bitch."

He shoved Liquid forward hard enough so that there was a _squeak_ as he slammed into the door, causing Hunk to laugh hysterically as Liquid opened it. As weak and wounded as he was, there was nothing he could do about the way he was being treated, even though he still had all of his weapons. There was no way that he could reach them before getting killed, so he had no choice but to keep going as the two of them entered a long rounded tunnel.

"So tell me about Claire." Hunk ordered. "Does she swallow? Does she like it in the ass?"

"She likes men who committ suicide." Liquid replied. "That's probably why our relationship isn't going anywhere... but I think _you_ got a real shot."

Hunk suddenly grabbed Liquid, spun him around, and there was a _squeak _as he punched him. He kept Liquid on his feet by grabbing his shirt as he punched him again and again, causing a _squeak-squeak-squeak _to echo down the tunnel until he let go, allowing Liquid to collapse to the floor.

"Are you _ever_ gonna learn?" Hunk asked.

"I doubt it." Liquid groaned. "I'm stubborn... it's, a, um... serious character flaw."

Hunk laughed for a second before there was another _squeak_ as he kicked Liquid in the face, and then he pulled him to his feet. Soon they reached the end of the tunnel, where a very heavy floodgate was down, but the release button was right next to it on the wall, so Liquid pushed it, and the gate started to open.

The metal door creaked and groaned as it slid upward, revealing a large pool of dark water. Claire was on an observation platform on the other side, and she was trying to press herself as far into the corner as she could.

"God damn, look at that ass!" Hunk exclaimed. "Hey baby, why don't you bring those long legs over here and party with a _real_ man."

Hunk continued to cat-call and whistle at her, but Liquid was more conserned with the large shadow that he could see moving under the water. It had been right below Claire at first, but Hunk's idiotic hollaring was now bringing it right toward them. So, being the team player that he was, Liquid quietly took the shock baton off his belt and waited until it was right below them before he struck Hunk in the leg.

The armored man cried out in surprise as he fell to his hands and knees, and then Liquid dove out of the way as there was a massive splash of water. It was a gigantic alligator that came out of the foaming water, and around it's neck was a huge collar with an I.D. tag that read: _Fluffy_. Hunk didn't even have time to scream as it's jaws closed down on him, causing a splash of blood as his body was severed from the stomach up.

The armored man's lower half collapsed as the alligator fell back into the water, and although the creature had rid him of one problem, he now had to somehow figure out how to defeat it. It would have been hard enough at full strength, but he was even weaker now thanks to the beating from Hunk.

"Alright." He said as he took off the clown nose and dropped it while pulling himself to his feet. "Let's do this!"


	22. Ch 22 Leaving The Sewers

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 22: Leaving The Sewers**

The alligator must have already finished with the top half of Hunk, because the shadow was moving toward Liquid again, and he had no idea what to do. His fist thought was to use the shock baton to electrify the water, but it wasn't strong enough to do anything besides destroy a weapon he would probably need again later if he survived.

He was about to try thinking of another plan, when he had to jump out of the way as the alligator returned in another huge splash of water. Somehow he managed to stay far enough away from its jaws to avoid being eaten, but the floodgate door was just big enough for its body to squeeze through, so its head got a little closer each time.

Out of desperation, and running out of strength as his injuries again caught up to him, Liquid activated the shock baton, and struck the alligator on the snout. To his surprise this actually caused the creature to stop for a second, but then it glared at him and shook its head before resuming the attack. It's head was all the way through the gate now, and its body would soon follow, so Liquid screamed as he drew his pistol and started randomly shooting at it.

Suddenly there was a beeping sound as one of his bullets hit the floodgate control, and the alligator roared as the heavy metal gate slammed down onto its neck. There was so much force behind the door that the creature's neck was severed, and the clown nose must have been left right in the gate's path as well, because the alligator's decapitation was followed by a high-pitch _squeak_.

"Well, what do you know?" Liquid asked as he just laid there. "That _is_ pretty funny."

His vision was slowly starting to dim, and even more so as he made one last effort to pull himself to his feet. He then put his weapons away, and stumbled past the alligator's stumbled head to open the gate, but stopped as he came to Hunk's remains. He had said something about a G-Virus sample, so Liquid opened his sidepack, and along with a bunch of ammo that he quickly took, there was a reinforced vial of a strange purple substance.

He put that in his own sidepack as well, and that was all that was left, since Hunk's weapons had been destroyed by the alligator, so Liquid pushed the button to raise the floodgate, and fell to his hands and knees as it opened. He sat against the wall and weakly motioned for Claire to come over to him, so she jumped into the water and swam to the gate.

"Liquid, I found it!" She exclaimed as she climbed up. "I found the green herb!"

She opened her sidepack and took out the folded green plant, and Liquid was literally about a minute from death, so he bit off one of the large leaves and ate it. As it had done in that office in the RPD, his wounds began to close almost instantly after consuming it, so leaf after leaf, he gobbled down the healing plant, and even chewed up the stem for good measure.

Not only had this caused his wounds to close, but the color had returned to his skin, and even that pesky headache had gone away. His strength did not take long to follow, and he was so happy that he grabbed Claire by the cheeks and kissed her deeply before pushing her away and jumping to his feet.

"Sorry, honey, no time for love." He declared. "We have a city to escape!"

Without even waiting for her reaction, Liquid readied his shotgun and started running back down the tunnel. Claire couldn't have been _that _angry at him, since she didn't shoot at him as she followed, and she kept following him as exited the tunnel, crossed the bridge, and ran through the double-doors to the waterfall.

"Hey, there's a switch or something over here." Claire said as she examined a wall panel. "Let's see, it says: _Wolf of Silver and Eagle of Gold, their eyes shall open the path forward_. So, I guess we have to find something to put into these slots."

"Seriously?" Liquid asked. "Claire, I can _see_ the door behind the waterfall, and this isn't exactly _Niagra_ we're dealing with here. Come with me."

He grabbed her by the hand, and she protested heavily, but then he dragged her through the waterfall, and she appeared to be dumbfounded that they were standing in front of a door as they came out the other side.

"Holy crap." She said in disbelief. "I would have never thought to do that. Liquid, how did you do that without solving a puzzle first?"

"Magic." He replied as he opened the door. "Shall we?"

They went through the door, and this place looked completely different from the sewers. It was more rocky as if having been tunneled within a mountain. There was also a large chasm that stretched farther than they could see, but thankfully there was a skytram parked at the edge of the platform. It was connected to a cable system that ran along a path with supports hanging down at regular intervals that were just high enough for it to pass through.

The lights were on inside, and the doors were unlocked, so Liquid and Claire walked in. There was literally nothing inside. It was just an empty space for moving people around, but it also made it a lot less complicated to search.

"Do you know how to operate one of these?" Claire asked as the door closed behind them.

"No, do you?" Liquid replied. "It can't be _that_ hard, it only goes in one direction."

The controls were easy to find, and there was only one button, so he pushed it, and they both jumped a little as the skytram began to move. Nothing happened for a minute or so as they made their way across the chasm, but then the skytram shook for a second as if something big had landed on top of it.

"What the hell was that?" Liquid asked as they looked up.

Suddenly there was a fimiliar roaring sound as the skytram shook again, and then a large red claw tore through the ceiling right between them.

"Holy crap Christmas!" Claire screamed as they both fell backwards.

The monster roared again as the claw kept slicing through the air in an effort to find them, but then it stopped and pulled back. However, it got stuck on a jagged piece of the hole it had made, and its struggles got more and more frantic until there was a ripping sound, and the severed arm fell into the skytram as the monster's roars became a lot more distant sounding.

"Must've hit a low spot in the ceiling." Liquid said as he looked at the claw.

"Gross." Claire replied as she looked away.

Liquid was about to laugh at her, but then the arm started to sizzle and foam as if it were being dissolved. In fact, it was, because only a few seconds later the severed arm had melted away into literally nothing about the same time that the skycar shook again as it came to a stop. The engine powered down as the door opened a few seconds later, and it was too dark to see anything outside. So they both got up, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the skycar.


	23. Ch 23 Monitor Station

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 23: Monitor Station**

The lights on this side of the platform were either off or broken, leaving Liquid and Claire in darkness as they stepped away from the skytram. Thankfully he still had the lighter in his sidepack, so he took it out and pressed down on the button, allowing them to see their way with the small sphere of orange light.

"Where the hell are we now?" Claire asked.

"No idea." Liquid replied as he drew his pistol. "Just stay close and keep your weapon ready."

This platform was small just like the other one, and eventually they found the door, so Liquid opened it, and now they found themselves inside of a well lit hallway. It took a second for their eyes to adjust as Liquid put the lighter away, but once they did, they discovered that they were not alone in this place.

Zombies. There were a bunch of zombies shambling their way up and down the hall, but they were far enough away that between the two of them, the undead were no threat. They took their time, aiming carefully as they took down each one with headshots until the hallway turned right and Liquid suddenly stopped. At his feet was another body, but this one had something special in its hands that made him whistle.

"Wow, take a look at _this_." He said as he picked it up. "Claire, do you know what this is? It's one of those _Spark Shot _tazer rifles."

"Tazer rifle?" Claire asked. "What, you mean like non-lethal?"

"Hardly... watch this."

He aimed the spark shot at the next zombie to approach, and there was a crackle of electricity as he pulled the trigger. Suddenly the zombie started to convulse where it stood as bolts of blue lightning flowed up and down its body, and it's skin started to smolder as if it were being burned. It's head exploded a second later, making Claire jump back as its body slumped to the ground.

"Holy shit." She whispered.

"Yeah, I thought you'd like it." Liquid replied as he tossed it to her. "I'm more of a shotgun kind of guy, and that pistol of yours kinda sucks against bigger things. Shall we go?"

She nodded, and now the zombies fell even faster with the spark shot as well as when Liquid readied his shotgun. The hallway ended at a ladder a short distance later, so the two of them climbed up into some kind of old control room. There were no zombies or anything of importance in this place, so they walked out the other door, and were surprised to feel the night air on their faces as they stepped outside.

"Finally, some fresh air." Liquid said as he took a deep breath. "Felt like we were underground for years."

This did not mean freedom, however, since they were in some kind of enclosed structure that looked kind of like an old airplane hanger, but being able to see the moon in the night sky for a moment still felt like a relief. There were no lights outside, but the full moon allowed them to see a set of raliroad tracks that ran down the center, which they followed to a very large eight-sided hole.

No, not a hole. A dimly illuminated and man-made shaft that was large enough to drop anything through, but where was the lift? They could see a kind of elevator track in each corner of the shaft, but there was no sign of the transport as they looked down. There was also no sign of the bottom, nor was there a sound when Liquid tossed a rock down.

"Ok, what the hell?" He asked as he looked around. "There's gotta be a control panel, or a recall switch, or something."

"I found something over here." Claire replied. "It's another maintenance lift, but it looks like it only goes down one level."

Liquid walked over to her, and sure enough there was a small lift. There was room for both of them, so they stepped onto it, and with a push of the button it took them down exactly one level where a narrow walkway was built around the edge of the shaft. Their footsteps echoed as they followed it all the way around to a door that was built into the wall, and this door opened into a long room that was filled with machinery.

"This must be the control room." Liquid said as he looked at the security camera aimed at the door.

"Good." Claire replied while walking ahead. "Then let's control something and get the hell out of here."

Liquid was also getting tired of this place as he followed her across the room and around a row of large machines to where a fully operational monitoring station was hidden. That, and he was just getting plain tired. He had been moving non-stop since driving into the city on Xing's birthday gift, so it was a nice feeling to be able to sit down on the chair in front of the console.

"Getting tired, old man?" Claire asked as she turned toward him. "What, did you forget to take your _Centrum Silver _today? Should I try to find you a cane or something?"

"How about you find the _off switch _for your mouth?" Liquid replied. "Between zombies, monsters, giant alligators, and all the lunatic survivors in this city, I think I've earned a five minute break."

Claire shook her head as she continued to examine the expansive control panels until she found a keyhole toward the center. There was also a key hanging on a hook nearby that was labeled _Train Recall_, so she put it into the slot and turned it, causing a second monitor to flicker to life. It showed a representation of the lift at the bottom of the shaft, and now it was starting to move.

"There, all better." She continued with a condescending tone. "Now are you all done with your nap yet, _gramps_, or should I just wake you up in time for the news?"

"I'll wake you up upside your damn head, girl." Liquid replied angrily as he got to his feet. "Or should I just put you over my knee again?"

Claire's eyebrows narrowed as her face started to turn red with her own anger, and then she set her sparkshot down on the console before doing the same with her pistol.

"I'll break you in half, _old man_." She hissed as she got right in his face. "But you're too scared to give me a fair fight, aren't you? What, are you scared to fight a nineteen year old? Did you forget to pay your _AARP_ membership? Or are you just a God damn chicken?"

Liquid said nothing as he set the shotgun down on the other console, followed by his pistol and even the shock baton. Once he was completely disarmed, he turned toward her and then leaned in so close that the tip of his nose was touching hers.

"Ready when you are, sweet-cheeks." He whispered. "Or should we just kiss and make up?"

Claire gritted her teeth as she threw a punch, but Liquid caught her fist in his hand before using it to shove her backwards. She stumbled back into the console, and he was getting ready to counter her next attack, when her impact caused a large security monitor to flicker on. Suddenly his mouth ran dry as he tried to tell her what he was seeing, but she came forward with her next punch hitting him in the chin.

Again he tried to tell her what he was seeing as she attacked, but the words would just not form. Finally he had to grab her and spin her around so that she could see the hulking green trench-coated monster walking toward the camera that was pointed toward the door. She stopped struggling as it reached the camera, and then it pointed toward them before doing a thumbs-down. It remained there for several seconds as if making sure that they got the message, and then it smashed the camera with its huge fist, causing the monitor to go to static.


	24. Ch 24 The Train Battle

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 24: The Train Battle**

"Guns!" Liquid finally managed to yell. "Guns! Grab your guns!"

The trench-coated monster's heavy footsteps were making the whole room shake as he and Claire recovered their weapons, but from past battles with this creature, he knew that they wouldn't be very effective. There was no other way out of the room except for the door that the monster was now blocking, so they had no choice but to fight as it came around the corner.

Liquid began to blast it with his shotgun, causing the creature to twitch a little with each shell that struck its chest, but then Claire fired the spark shot, causing the monster to take a step back as the crackling electricity flowed across its body. It's head didn't explode or anything like the zombies did, but it was better than nothing.

"Keep it up!" Liquid yelled as they kept firing. "Don't give it time to recover!"

Their combined gunfire continued to drive the monster back until it tripped over one of the desks, causing the room to shake as it fell onto its back. It was still moving, but this was probably the only chance that they would have to escape, so Liquid grabbed Claire's hand and started running for the door. However, the monster reached for Claire as they ran past, and succeeded in grabbing the spark shot.

"No!" Claire yelled as she tried to grab it.

Liquid had to pull her back to keep her from getting grabbed by its other hand, but then the monster put both hands on the spark shot and caused a small crackle of electricity as it broke the weapon in half. Liquid responded to this by shooting it in the face at point blank range as it was getting up, making the room shake again as the monster fell, and then they ran for the door.

"It broke my spark shot!" Claire yelled as they ran outside. "What are we gonna do now?!"

"We're gonna run, that's what!" Liquid replied while pulling her by the hand.

He ran so fast that he was almost dragging Claire behind him as they went back around the walkway. They were just getting into the lift when the monster knocked the monitor room door off its hinges, and they were on the way back up as it stomped its way after them. Liquid smashed the lift controls with the stock of his shotgun, but this would probably only slow it down.

"Ok, here's the plan." He said as they watched it get closer. "We're gonna spread out and try to keep it between us while shooting, and hopefully it won't know which of us to go after."

"What happens when we run out of bullets?" Claire asked.

He didn't really want to tell her that they were totally hosed once they ran out of ammo, but suddenly there was a rumbling sound from deep within the shaft, and the monster stumbled a bit as the walkway it was standing on began to move. Far below they could see the lift rising up to meet them, and then the wall behind the monster slid open as the walkway folded upward to avoid the lift. The monster was tossed into the opening as the walkway completely retracted into the wall, and then the opening closed, trapping it.

Claire and Liquid just stood there stupidly as the lift with a built in train car finally made it to the surface. It was only just beginning to sink into their minds that they had escaped from the trench-coated monster, at least for now, when they heard a door opening and slamming shut behind them. Quickly turning around with weapons ready, they were surprised to see Ada and Sherry running toward them.

"Run!" Ada screamed. "Run for you lives!"

"Outta the way, assholes!" Sherry yelled.

Ada and the little girl ran right past them and onto the lift as a familiar roar filled the air, and the red monster-human thing walked out after them. It was moving more slowly than usual, and it was now missing its large red clawed arm, but this was still not something that any of them were prepared to deal with at the moment.

"You've got to be kidding me." Liquid grumbled to himself. "What is this, a tag-team?"

It was too far away to use his shotgun, so he took out his pistol and began shooting at the monster while backing up onto the lift platform. There was no control panel outside to start the lift, so everyone ran into the built in train car... everyone except for Liquid. He continued to shoot the red monster as the train car's horn sounded twice, and then there was a harsh rumbling as the lift started down.

"Bye." Liquid called up to the monster as it reached the edge of the shaft.

But instead of standing there helplessly as the lift descended, the monster fell forward and slammed face first into the lift platform a short distance from Liquid. It didn't move as he took this time to reload his weapons, and was still lying in a sort of _child's pose _a few seconds after he was ready. So he aimed the shotgun and fired, causing a spray of purple blood as the monster was knocked over onto its side, but it still had no reaction.

"Holy shit, it's dead." Liquid said to himself. "I mean... of course its dead. So what now, bitch? I guess all those ass-whoopins I gave you finally sank in, huh?"

Suddenly the monster started to sizzle and fizz like the arm in the skytram had done, but this time it did not melt. The redness across its torso began to spread across the rest of its body as the human head was melted across its chest. Another, much scarier head with red eyes and fangs replaced it a few seconds later as the severed arm regenerated, and then both arms became claws as a second set of clawed arms grew out of its shoulders.

The redness was now covering its whole body as its muscle mass increased, and when it stood up, it was at least seven feet tall. It roared again with much more force, and Liquid screamed as he turned-tail and ran for the train car. The monster slowly walked after him as he pounded on the door while screaming incoherently, and he really couldn't blame them for not letting anyone in.

"Fuck that, I_ totally _blame them!" Liquid screamed as he kept pounding. "Let me in, you sons of bitches, or I'll kick your rotton heads in!"

He was forced to run away from the door as the monster reached it, and he fired a few rounds with the shotgun, but each hit only caused a few sparks as they glanced off its natural armor. The monster's body shook as it made a growling sound that was almost like chuckling, and then it rushed forward with a slash that would've surely cleaved Liquid in half if he hadn't dove out of the way at the last second.

This was the good news. The bad news was that the monster's attack had struck one of the lift's corner engines, causing it to spew black smoke as pieces of it flew everywhere. The lift itself shook again as it began to slow down, trapping them in the middle of the shaft as it completely came to a stop.

"Oh great." Liquid said as he kept firing. "That's just God damn great!"

As before, the shells did nothing but amuse the creature, and in response it rushed forward again. There was no time to avoid it this time as the monster backhanded him into the air, and he expected to slam into the wall as he reached the edge of the platform, but instead he kept going. He landed on some kind of maintenance walkway like the one he had seen above, bouncing and rolling to a stop several meters later when he finally did reach the wall.

He hoped that the monster would go after the train car in order to give him some time to rest, but instead it walked across the platform and onto the walkway as Liquid pulled himself to his feet. He was cornered, but then his mind realized that a maintenance walkway meant maintenance _access_, which would give him an escape while he circled back around to the train.

Suddenly as if on cue, the black smoke stopped flowing from the corner engine as the horn sounded, and the lift quickly vanished from sight as it continued down the shaft. The monster paid no attention to this as it continued after Liquid, which meant that he needed to get the hell out of there. So he followed the walkway around the shaft until he came to an open air duct that was bigger than the one he had seen back in the RPD.

"An air duct? Really?" He asked as he looked at it. "_This_ is how they provide maintenance access?"

His focus was restored as the approaching monster roared again, and the duct was big enough for him, but there was no way for the monster to fit. So he dove inside, crawling away as fast as he could in order to escape from the roaring monster. It tried to reach in after him as he vanished into the darkness, and then roared one more time in frustration before turning away.


	25. Ch 25 Hidden Character

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 25: Hidden Character**

Once again using the lighter to see, Liquid slowly crawled through the air duct. He had no idea where it would take him, but anything was better than going back to the red monster in the shaft. So he continued on until a section of duct broke out from underneath him, making him cry out in surprise as he fell to the metal floor below.

This new place was dimly lit like the shaft had been, but it was enough to see, so he put the lighter away before getting up. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of metal, and there were two ways that he could go. Behind him was an elevator door, but nothing happened when he pushed the button, so that left the heavy door at the other end of the hall.

It was more difficult to open than the others, probably from lack of power, but he eventually got it and stepped through into a very large and open area with a metal-grated walkway. The first thing he saw was a gigantic reactor tower that was almost touching the walkway as he went past. It was humming just a little as if it were in standby mode or something, but then he saw that one of the high-capacity fuse in the recepticle in front of it had blown.

The second thing he noticed was that this whole place was illuminated by soft orange light, so he looked down through the grated-walkway and saw that there were huge vats of molten steel down below. For a moment he wondered why those would be placed there when there was only a simple guard rail to keep people from falling in, but then he felt a cold stinging sensation as something grazed his cheek while flying past.

The object flew into one of the walkway's corner posts behind him, and Liquid had just realised that it was a combat knife, when something else came into view. The figure leapt out of fricken nowhere, letting out a high-pitch battle cry as it flipped through the air before gracefully landing next to the corner post and retrieving the knife.

"What the fuck?" Liquid asked as he looked at it.

Never in his life had he seen such a creature. It was a completely white rectangle that stood as tall as him, and its only really defining features were its also white arms, the knife it was holding, and the blue beret on its head. Somehow it moved around unhindered regardless of not actually having any legs, while also laughing in that high-pitch voice even though it had no face.

"Hello, Officer Liquid." It said as it turned toward him. "I was impressed with how you managed to take down Hunk, but you still have to deal with _me_ if you want to survive."

"And who... or _what _are you?" Liquid asked.

"Oh, where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself; I am Tofu, the 5th survivor, and I get my jollies from doing things like _this_."

With a battle cry, Tofu tossed the knife at him a second time, but this time Liquid ducked down as the blade sunk into the post right where his face would've been. Tofu laughed as Liquid stood back up, but then it stopped as he pulled the knife out of the post and casually dropped it over the side. The blade hissed for a second as it sank into one of the molten vats, and Tofu's fists balled up with anger.

"You have insulted my honor!" The strange creature yelled. "And for that you must die!"

It came running at him with another battle cry, and Liquid waited until it was really close before unslinging the shotgun and firing a shell right into its center. Tofu screamed as it was thrown backwards by the blast, and Liquid was pleased with the large hole that had been blown all the way through its center when it hit the floor. But then he gasped as the hole slowly filled itself in, and a few seconds later Tofu got up.

"You can't kill Tofu, Liquid." It said confidently. "So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna beat you senseless so that it doesn't hurt as much when I chuck your dumpy ass into that molten steel down there."

"Oh yeah?" Liquid replied. "Well, you know what _I'm_ gonna do?"

He fired another round with the shotgun, knocking Tofu down once again as he ran away. The powerless elevator was the only thing back the way he came, so his only hope was to find something useful the other way, or atleast some more ammo. The walkway wrapped around the reactor tower and came out at another metal hallway, but the Tofu creature was already coming after him by the time he reached the heavy door.

"Here I come, Liquid!" It yelled as it ran down the walkway.

This door was unbelievably cold to the touch, and it almost looked like there was frost starting to form on the edges, making it hard to even touch for more than a few seconds, so he turned toward the charging creature and emptied his shotgun into it's body. More white material was sprayed out it's back as huge portions of its body were shredded, and it collapsed as Liquid grabbed onto the door.

"You can't stop me, Liquid." Tofu said as it started to regenerate. "I'll keep coming back."

The metal was so cold that it hurt his hands to turn the release, and when he finally shouldered it open, he stumbled back as he was met with a siberian blast of winter weather. A thick layer of ice was covering almost everything in this room, including machines and even a few people that must've become trapped inside, but Liquid had no choice but to venture forth as Tofu started to get up.

Being careful not to slip and fall on the ice, Liquid carefully walked through the room and around the rows of machienery to find that it was a dead end. It was so cold that he was shivering as he turned around just in time to see Tofu walk through the door, and then it also had to slow down to avoid slipping.

"And here we are at last." It taunted as it very slowly walked toward him. "End of the line, Liquid... the jig is up... you're finished... there's no going back from here... this is the final countdown... it's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine."

It moved around the last row of machines as Liquid slung his shotgun, but then the creature stopped to laugh as he took out his pistol. It shook its head as much as a solid block of Tofu could, and then it went to grab Liquid, who responded by pulling the trigger. The bullet slammed into the creature's hand, and to the surprise of both, caused it to shatter into a hundred pieces along with everything up to the elbow.

Of course, the cold! This creature might have been able to regenerate, but it could still be frozen, and Tofu must've realized this at the same time as Liquid, since it turned around and tried to get back to the warmer area. Trying to run turned out to be its literal downfall, since this caused it to slip and fall on its face, and Liquid just kept shooting it. Both arms, and large pieces of its body had been splintered off by this point, but then the pistol clicked empty, so he holstered it and took out the shock baton.

"I've always wanted to say this." He said as the weapon activated. "Hasta la vista... baby."

He then struck the creature with the weapon, and there was en electrical surge as its whole body was shattered into thousands of little pieces. The only thing left intact was the blue beret that it had been wearing, so he picked it up and blew his nose into it before dropping it back onto the floor. There wasn't any time to enjoy this victory since it was still fricken cold in this room, and he was about to leave, when he noticed something.

There was a heavy wooden box laying open on a nearby shelf, and when he investigated closer, he smiled when he saw that it was a supply of high-capacity fuses. Hopefully this would allow him to use that elevator at the other end of the walkway, so he took one and very carefully walked out of the cold room before closing the door.

"You stay cool in there, Tofu." He said as he walked away.


	26. Ch 26 Settling The Score

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 26: Settling The Score**

The high capacity fuse worked perfectly once he used it to replace the old one, and now everything was much easier to see as the main lights came on. The reactor tower hummed louder because of the increased output, but what he was most conserned with was the elevator he had seen earlier. This time the button lit up as he pressed it, and about a minute later there was a _ding_ as the doors opened.

For once nothing jumped out at him, so he was free to go inside, and the elevator started down once the doors closed behind him. For well over a minute he just stood there as the elevator went down, and down, and down. Finally it came to a stop, and the doors opened with a soft _ding_ a few seconds later. That fuse he replaced must have controlled all of the lights in this place, since this metal hallway was well lit, and the first thing he saw was the train car on the lift.

"Finally caught up to them." He said to himself as he started forward.

A short hallway stretched from the elevator, and then opened up at a 4-way junction. There was a door to the right, a small office to the left that was labeled _Security Station_, and finally the lift shaft straight ahead. He was already headed that way, so he walked onto the platform, discovering not only that the door to the train-car was open, but that the others had already moved on.

"Great, now where did they go?" He asked as he left the car.

They weren't in the car, nor were they back the way he came, leaving the door and the security station. The office was the easiest place, so he walked over to it and opened the door, smirking at what was waiting for him inside. There was no sign of Ada or Sherry, but he had no trouble finding Claire, and she wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

"Well, well, look at this." He said as he let the door close behind him. "A present? For me?"

She glared at him, but couldn't reply because of the duct-tape over her mouth, nor could she move since she was all tied up, sitting on the couch. Her arms and legs were completely restrained, and on top of that she was tied to the couch itself, so all she could do was look away in dissapointment as Liquid sat down next to her.

"Ok, let's start by getting that tape off your mouth." He said as he grabbed the corner of it. "God knows I like you better this way, but you probably don't, so we'll do this on the count of three. Ready... one."

She screamed as he roughly pulled the tape from her lips, and then she started to yell at him, but then she looked away again as he put his arm around her waist.

"Claire, why do you keep siding with these people against me?" He asked while putting his other hand on her leg. "I know you probably just want to get away from me, yet we just keep finding each other. I tell you, its almost like fate... I mean, just look at all the_ chemestry _between us."

"I_ failed _Chemestry." She sharply replied. "Now get your God damn hands off me."

Liquid laughed as he untied the rope that was holding her to the couch, but he left her tied up as he moved her around so that she was sitting across his lap. She struggled to get away, and gritted her teeth when he put his arms around her.

"Aw, don't be like that, baby." He continued as he stroked her hair. "Now, why don't you just sit here and tell Santa what a bad girl you've been?"

"You're gonna die for this." She hissed as she looked at him. "If I wasn't tied up right now, I would beat your old ass."

Liquid's smile turned into an evil grin as he started to untie her, and then he pushed her down to the floor once she was free. She jumped up and backed away at the same time that he got to his feet, and then they just stood there, glaring at each other as he set his weapons down on the nearby desk.

"I assume they took your gun when they left?" He asked as he locked the office door. "Well, that's fine, because I remember a certain little girl challenging me to a fair fight. So tell me, _honey-thighs_... is that offer still on the table?"

"Oh, you bet it is, _old man_." She replied. "You're lucky that monster showed up to save you last time, but there's no way you're getting out of this one. Here I come, Liquid!"

She ran at him with a punch, which he caught in his hand just like last time, but then she kicked him in the side and punched him in the mouth. She probably expected those hits to really hurt him, but instead he just deflected her next attack with his arm before shoving her backwards so that she fell onto the couch.

"Claire, maybe I should explain something to you." He said. "I've been beat up by monsters, hunted by zombies, and tortured by five different lunatics, including getting shot on two different occasions, and that's just _today_. What I'm saying is that you are not a match for me... you are nothing _close_ to a match for me."

"Shut up!" Claire yelled angrily as she jumped up. "You men are all the same! You think you're so much better than me just because you can pee standing up... well, let's see how superior you feel after _this_!"

She came forward with more speed and intensity this time as she did a flying kick that would have put _Hwang Jung Lee _to shame, but Liquid stepped out of the way, causing her to gasp as her leg went right through the glass part of the office door. It got stuck as her other foot reached the floor, and she tried to balance to keep from getting cut, but she would've fallen if Liquid had not caught her.

"Don't move." He said as he held her up. "You might get cut more if you struggle."

She did her best to hold still as Liquid put his hand on her leg and started to carefully pull it out of the hole. A small amount of blood was dripping down from where she had already been cut, and Liquid was careful not to make it any worse as her leg was finally freed, and now Claire's face turned red with shame as she looked away.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he put his hand on her cheek to make her look at him.

She just stood there staring at him as if she were in shock, but then she came forward and they kissed. It started out as a simple peck on the lips, but quickly grew in intensity as they put their arms around each other and just kept kissing and kissing. Eventually he picked her up off the floor as she put her legs around his waist, and then he used one hand to hit the light switch, filling the room with darkness as they fell onto the couch.


	27. Ch 27 Into The Lab

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 27: Into The Lab**

"So... when did the couch break?" Claire asked as she retied her ponytail.

"I'm not really sure." Liquid replied as he looked at the broken piece of furnature. "Must've been how we ended up on the floor... that explains how you suddenly got on top of me."

They finished getting dressed, and although the last twenty minutes had been a nice respite from what was going on, they still had to find a way to get out of the city. Liquid had also been right about the others taking Claire's weapon, so he ended up giving her the shotgun and shells in exchange for all her pistol ammo. After all, he still had the shock baton, so between the two of them, they should've been able to handle anything that came their way.

They spent some time to make sure that their weapons were reloaded, and soon it was time to move on. Liquid was opening the office door and preparing to dive back into the world of survival horror, but Claire suddenly stopped him.

"Liquid, wait a second." She said. "Look, I know you're feeling all macho from scoring with me, and I'm _obviously_ the best you ever had, but could you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this? I'm not trying to be an asshole or anything, but I don't even want to _imagine_ what would happen if my brother found out about this... the poor guy thinks I've never even been on a _date_ before."

"That's Chris, right?" Liquid asked. "The one you came here to find? Don't worry, Claire, anything that happens between us, stays between us. You were _amazing_, by the way."

She smiled and they shared another quick kiss before leaving the security office, and then everything became serious again as they moved toward the one door that hadn't been explored yet. It led them into another massive open area with another narrow walkway that stretched across a very deep chasm.

"How the hell do they do this?" Liquid asked as they walked. "With water tables and how far underground we already are, how the hell do they manage to build massive bottomless pits like this? And why would they even want to?"

"Who knows?" Claire replied. "I guess that if you have enough money, you can do anything. This one friend at college, her dad spent a _million_ dollars to make a gigantic gummi-bear, right? Then he had it encased in amber and burried under the _Petrified Forest National Park _just to fuck with future archeologists."

Liquid just shrugged at this, and they kept going until the walkway ended at another door. This one opened into a curved room with a whole wall of deactivated security monitors toward the back, along with two doors on the other side of them. One was a regular one like in the rest of this facility, but the other was heavier and sturdier looking than any bank vault.

"Holy crap, look at this thing." Liquid said as he examined it.

It was made of two interlocking steel halves; each one about two feet thick, and no visible way to open it. There was a panel on wall next to it, but there wasn't a keyhole or a slot to swipe a card like he had seen in the RPD basement. What it had was a long narrow recepticle toward the bottom that looked like it could fit an old 5 1/4 floppy disk. He wanted to examine it further, but then the door next to it opened, and out stepped the blonde woman who had shot him back in the sewers.

"Annette?" Claire asked.

"That's my name." She replied as she took a pistol out from under her coat. "So, Umbrella sent a cleanup crew to take care of me, huh? Well, that's too bad, because I'm about to escape... but you two won't. Now put your weapons down."

She motioned for them to move away from the security monitors once they were disarmed, and after they were against the far wall, she pushed a button, showing dozens of feeds from the train car lift all the way back to the main entrance of the RPD. Each one showed more zombies and monsters than there had been before, especially back in the police station where no one had been killing them in awhile.

"As you can see, Umbrella's greed has destroyed this city." Annette explained. "They wanted to steal my husband's work, but all they got was an ass-whoopin. Even that Hunk guy who stole the G-Virus sample after... he was done with me... met his end in the sewers trying to get back to the surface. It's a shame that the sample was destroyed... but I have another."

She kept the gun aimed at them while constantly looking back at the screens as if she were searching for something. She switched the screen in front of her to a dozen different feeds until an image of Sherry standing on a familiar grated walkway came into view.

"Ah, there she is." Annette continued. "I knew that the company would send someone else, so I hid the other sample in my daughter's locket. Now all I have to do is retrieve her, and we can escape."

"Hold the damn phone." Claire suddenly said. "So not only did you let your little girl run around by herself during a fricken zombie apocalypse, but you _also_ used her as a hiding place for a sample of the shit that caused this mess in the first place? What the hell is wrong with you, lady? Was your father in the Nazi SS or something?"

Annette's face turned red with anger as she stepped toward Claire, but then she noticed that the monitor changed to show Sherry backing away from something. A few seconds later the green trench-coated monster stomped into view. Sherry ran away from it, and it started to go after her, but then stopped as it noticed the camera. It pointed at them before making the motion of a thumb dragging across its neck, and finally smashed the camera.

"Sherry!" Annette yelled as it went to static. "You've got to save her!"

"And why the fuck would I do that?" Liquid replied sharply. "That little brat's been nothing but a pain in my ass since the moment I saw her."

"Because this heavy door next to me leads to the escape train, that's why. That, and I'm the only one who knows where the key is hidden, so bring my daughter back here safely, and I'll let you come with us."

"Come on, Liquid, she's just a little girl." Claire added. "All we have to do is bring her back, and we can all get out of here... please... for me?"

Liquid grumbled to himself as he nodded, and then Annette put her pistol away as the two of them picked up their weapons. It was really tempting to just shoot her right there, but Liquid doubted that she carried the key with her, so she needed to live for now.

"She's near the reactor tower fuse box." Annette explained. "You'll have to go back across the walkway and up the elevator to get there."

"Yeah, I already know where it is." Liquid replied. "But I swear... if you try to screw us over... you know what, just don't screw us over. Come on, Claire."

Nothing else was said as they ran out of the curved room, and now it was a race against time to save Sherry from that monster, but the biggest question in Liquid's mind was that once they saved Sherry from it... who was going to save _them_?


	28. Ch 28 Saving Sherry

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 28: Saving Sherry**

Running across the long walkway and back to the security station hallway junction, Claire was right behind Liquid as he turned the corner and ran to the elevator.

"Ok, here's the plan." He said after pushing the button. "We need to get up to the reactor tower walkway and then get past that monster in order to rescue Sherry, however... I'm not sure how we're gonna do it without getting killed. I mean, it's one thing to run away from it, but protecting a kid along the way?"

"Well, we don't have a choice." Claire replied. "This is the only way Annette will let us use the escape train, and with as big as this facility is, it would be almost impossible to find the key on our own."

Liquid knew that she was right, but that still left the problem of getting not only past, but also away from the monster. The elevator doors opened a few seconds later, and now he had about a minute left to figure it out before they reached the reacter level. Their guns did almost nothing to it before, but electricity had been more effective. This meant that maybe the shock baton could hurt it, but he didn't really want to get that close.

Soon the elevator came to a stop, and once the doors opened, Liquid knew that there was only one more door between them and the monster. So they readied their weapons, opened the door, and tried to move across the grated walkway without the monster noticing them. Using the reactor tower as cover, they peeked out and saw that Sherry was trapped. She wasn't strong enough to open the frost-covered door at the end, and the monster was slowly advancing toward her.

"I'm gonna go and distract it with the pistol." Liquid said. "Be ready to start shooting once I lure it back here."

Without waiting for a reply, Liquid stepped out from cover, aiming his pistol at the monster's back as he walked toward it. He fired twice, but aside from it twitching a little as each bullet slammed into it, there was no reaction. He shot again and again, but the monster was completely focused on the little girl for some reason.

"Get away from me!" Sherry yelled as she backed up agains the door. "I said get away from me, you asshole!"

She looked around in desperation for an escape, but there was none to be found. She also didn't have a weapon, so she did the only thing she could, which was to take the large pendent from around her neck and toss it at the monster's head. Her aim was off, so it flew right past, but then something strange happened. The pendent landed on the walkway, sliding to a stop near Liquid's feet... and the monster turned around.

It was now slowly stomping its way toward him, and Liquid fired two more useless shots before realizing that the monster's gaze was fixed not on him, but on the pendent itself. It must've been after the G-Virus sample the whole time, so he picked it up, and the monster's eyes followed it as it got closer and closer.

He was trying to thing of what to do, when he suddenly had to duck down as the monster swung its arm at him. He managed to avoid it, causing the attack to srtike the reactor tower instead, and Liquid was glad it missed him, because it dented a huge piece of the frame inward as the tower started to spark.

"Is this what you want, you jolly green jackass?" Liquid asked. "Then go and get it!"

Waiting until the monster was right on top of him, Liquid casually tossed the pendent over the guardrail, and the monster tried to grab it. It's efforts failed and the pendent fell into one of the steel vats, but the monster had also broken the guardrail in the process and was now teetering on the edge of the walkway, flailing its arms to keep from falling.

So Liquid walked up behind it, and booted it in the rear, causing the monster to tumble forward. There was a huge splash down below as the green trenchcoated creature vanished into the molten steel... and it was over... he had beaten it. He expected a big dramatic scene like in _Terminator 2 _where the badguy tries to get out before he melts, but the monster didn't even struggle.

"I can't believe that worked." He said as he looked down at it. "But hey, final score: Big scary guy nothing, and Liquid, um... still alive. Can I get a _hell yeah_?!"

"No, you can't." Sherry replied as she walked up to him. "We would've all died here if I hadn't gotten scared and thrown my pendant. So drink deeply from the cup of shame, you asshole, and then jump into those vats down there."

Sherry looked like she was about to continue, but stopped as she saw the rage that was building in his eyes. So instead she screamed as Liquid grabbed her by the shirt with one hand and picked her up so that he was holding her right above the steel vats.

"Liquid, no!" Claire yelled as she ran up to them. "I know you want to kill her, and God knows she deserves it, but we'll never get out of here if you do!"

It was so tempting to just let go and be rid of the annoying little troll forever, but Claire was right, so he slowly set the little girl back down on the catwalk, where she immediatly kicked him in the shin. He tried to ignore it for Claire's sake, but then the little brat kicked him in the other shin, causing him to flip out.

"I'll find the key myself!" Liquid yelled as he moved toward her. "I'll just throw the little bitch into the vat, and we'll torture Annette until she gives us the key!"

Sherry screamed again as she ran behind Claire, and Liquid tried to go around her, but Claire kept getting in the way. He tried to grab her, and even tried to aim the pistol around Claire, but nothing worked. He even considered using the shock baton, but there wasn't a way to use it without hitting Claire.

"Liquid, stop." Claire continued as she put her hands on his shoulders. "We need her in order to get out of here, and once we escape, you will never have to see her again."

Liquid glared at the little girl hiding behind her, and then sighed as he relaxed. He then hugged Claire, and almost lost it again as Sherry made a mock-vomiting sound. Sherry made the sound again when he kissed Claire on the cheek, and it took all of his willpower to stay calm, but then the whole room shook as electricity started to flow up and down the reactor tower.

"_Warning: Critical reactor containment failure_." A female voice announced. "_The self destruct sequence has been activated, repeat, the self destruct sequence has been activated. This sequence cannot be aborted, all employees procede to the emergency car at the bottom platform_."


	29. Ch 29 Escape Complications

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 29: Escape Complications**

Alarms started to sound throughout the facility as Liquid, Claire, and Sherry ran toward the elevator that would take them back down to Annette. Then all they had to do was have her open the door, and they they could all escape this nightmare. The zombies and monsters must've been roused by the alarm, because there were a few shambling around near the security station when the elevator doors opened.

A few quick shots with the pistol was all it took to take them down, and soon they were through the next door. This was it, all they had to do was get across the walkway and into the curved monitor room, but these plans were haulted as they heard a gunshot, followed by sparks as a bullet bounced off the guardrail next to them.

Stopping in their tracks, all three of them turned around to see Ada standing a short distance away with a pistol in each hand. Liquid was instantly put on edge by this, not just because she was aiming a gun at him, but because she had always seemed to calm and controlled, but now she looked _pissed_.

"I've got bones to pick with all of you." Ada said as she moved a little closer. "But I'm willing to let go, because today I want _him_. The _ass-snorkel _who destroyed the only remaining G-Virus sample, and _completely_ ruined my mission."

"Mission?" Liquid asked. "Ah, so _you're_ the Umbrella spy Annette was babbling about... I thought she meant that Tofu guy."

"Shut your whore mouth! Do you have any idea what Wesker is going to do to me now that the sample has been lost?! No? Then send the girls away so I can _show_ you."

Claire didn't need to be told to go, since by the time Liquid turned around to talk to her she and Sherry were almost to the door, leaving him alone with Ada. A few seconds later the door opened and closed, allowing Liquid to be comforted by the fact that the escape route would be open if he _somehow_ got out of this alive.

"Alone at last." Ada continued as her calm returned. "Toss your weapons over the edge, and then turn around and get on you knees. I want you nice and helpless for what comes next."

She grinned as he tossed his pistol into the darkness, and then he took the shock baton off his belt, but at the last second he activated the weapon while tossing it at her. It hit her in the hands, making Ada cry out as her pistols fell to the ground, and Liquid grabbed the shock baton as he ran toward her. He planned to take her down with an upward swing, but she twisted her body to avoid it before coming back with a punch that made him stumble into the guard rail.

He swung the baton when she came at him, but she ducked down and came up with a palm strike to his chin while grabbing his arm. She then kneed him in the side and slammed his hand down on the rail, causing the shock baton to fall into the darkness as she spun around and kicked him in the chest.

"I hate to tell you this, Liquid." She said once he landed on his back. "But I'm a much better fighter than you."

He didn't bother replying as he pulled himself to his feet, even though she was probably right. The important thing right now was to not get killed, and if nothing else, to make sure that she didn't pick up those pistols. So he came forward to grab her, but she grabbed his arm and used her whole body to twist it so powerfully that he was made to do a sideways flip... right over the guard rail.

Just barely managing to grab the rail with one hand, he was about to start pulling himself back up, when Ada stopped him by picking up a pistol and pointing it at him. She winked at him as she pulled the hammer back, but then Liquid used his trump card. Quickly reaching into his sidepack, Ada gasped in shock as he pulled out the G-Virus sample that he had gotten from Hunk.

"The G-Virus!" She exclaimed as she came forward. "Give that to me!"

"Back off, you crazy bitch!" Liquid yelled as he moved it so it was being held by one finger. "You better drop your gun and give me plenty of room to climb back up unless you want this to go bye-bye!"

She stayed in place for a second, but then Liquid moved it so that the sample was hanging on the corner of his fingernail, causing her to drop the pistol as she backed up. Now that she wasn't attacking, it was easy to get his feet back onto the walkway and climb over the rail, but then he winked at her before tossing the sample over the side.

"No!" She screamed as she reached for it.

Ada leaned over the rail, but wasn't fast enough to catch the sample before it fell into darkness. She growled in a murderous rage, but then turned around just in time to see Liquid's fist coming at her face. She was already off balance, so it was enough to make her scream again as she tumbled over the rail, but this scream faded fast as she vanished from sight.

"Stupid bitch." He said as he sunk to his knees in exhaustion. "I hope she lands on the shock baton."

He wanted to take a few minutes to catch his breath, but the alarms were still going, and he had already wasted enough time. So he picked up the two pistols that Ada had dropped, reloaded them, and then moved as fast as he could over to the other door. The room was empty when he ran inside, but the heavy door at the far end was open, so he ran past the monitors, and into the escape tunnel.

It only went a short distance before ending at a set of double doors, so he went through into some kind of cargo room. There were metal crates stacked all around, but what he cared about was the cargo elevator at the back. He went for it, but was stopped as Annette stepped out from behind a crate to block his path. Her pistol was raised as she moved in front of the elevator door, and Liquid just hung his head from dissapointment.

"Oh, come on!" He yelled. "We're about to escape, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Shut up, just shut up!" She yelled back. "You... you had both samples and you destroyed them! All of my husband's work, erased... all the sacrifices... all the pain... how dare you destroy his life's work?! You...

She was interupted as one of the ceiling panels above them shattered, and Liquid gasped as the red monster dropped down. It landed on its feet next to Annette, and roared with fury before looking down at her.

"William?" She asked.

Her next scream was cut off as all four of the red monster's claws began tearing into her, quickly severing her limbs and head while everything around them was splattered with blood. The woman didn't have a chance, and was probably dead even before it was done slicing into her body. Then the monster roared as it turned toward Liquid.


	30. Ch 30 Finding The Train

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 30: Finding The Train**

Quickly running behind one of the giant crates, Liquid hoped to avoid the monster, but it had already seen him. The room shook a little as its footsteps came closer, and he knew that his pistols would be irritating to it at the most, so he quickly jumped behind the next crate and moved around the other side just as it was coming around to his first hiding place.

Slowly and carefully he stayed one step ahead of it as he made a wide circle around the crates. Finally he got as close as possible to where Annette was killed, so he took a chance and crept toward the elevator. Moving as fast as he could, Liquid tried to be quiet as he stepped over the woman's remains and pressed the button.

"_Going down_." A overly loud voice announced, making him jump. "_Standby for cargo elevator arrival_."

Liquid tried to put his hands over the speaker to muffle the sound, but it was too late. There was a growl behind him, and he slowly turned around to see the monster walking out from behind the crates. The giant eye built into its arm opened for a second to look at him, and then closed as it started walking forward again.

The monitor panel on top of the elevator showed that it was still going to be awhile until it reached this level, so he reached down and picked up Annette's pistol from the floor. Pulling the trigger of that one as well as the spare he already had, each bullet made sparks as they glanced off its natural armor until the weapons were empty.

"Fuck you!" He yelled as he tossed the guns.

The weapons struck it in the torso, making the monster stop for a second as if it were confused. But then it roared before crushing them with its foot, and Liquid screamed as he ran away. The monster also started running, and it was a lot faster than he was, so he did the only thing he could, which was to start climbing up one of the larger stacks of crates.

The monster was right behind him as he scrambled up the sides, and his plan was to leap to another stack once he reached the top, but there were two flaws with his plan: First was the fact that the other stacks were a bit farther away than he thought, and second was that the monster's weight was pulling the top one off balance as it tried to get on top.

"Oh no!" Liquid yelled as it started to tumble over. "Oh no!"

The monster's top claw slashed at him, forcing Liquid to take a blind leap, but this also caused the crate to fall forward. Liquid bounced off the edge of the next crate down, but managed to grab the edge of the next one for a second before his hand slipped. It was only about eight down until he fell to the floor, but the monster didn't have it so easy.

It roared as the crate fell toward it, and there was nothing to get in the way as it became sandwiched between the floor and the crate a couple seconds later. Some more of that purple blood slowly spread out from underneath, and Liquid was about to take a rest when there was a beeping sound as the elevator arrived.

"_Going down_." The voice said as the huge door slid open.

The fall might not have hurt so badly if he hadn't fallen onto the pistol he still had in his holster, but it wasn't serious enough to stop him from getting up and going for the elevator. He was about halfway there when he heard something moving behind him, so he turned around and gasped as the monster slowly pushed the crate away.

"You have got to be kidding me." He said to himself.

The monster roared as it got up, but then it's body started to hiss and fizzle as its body started to go through another transformation. This time it dropped to all fours as its body became shaped more like a bull, and out of its torso grew a cluster of spikes that almost looked like teeth. More and more spikes grew out until the whole massive torso was covered in them, and Liquid decided that he had seen enough.

Running into the elevator and pushing the button, the door closed just as the monster was starting to move around, and Liquid sighed with relief as the elevator made the announcement that it was going down. The ride seemed to take forever as he went down and down, but this meant that it would take atleast this long for the red monster to follow him. That was, if it could even operate an elevator.

Finally the elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal what he had been waiting to see. There was a cargo train sitting at the end of a short hallway, so he ran toward it and went through the open side door to see Claire and Sherry examining the controls.

"Alright, let's get outa here." He said as he walked up to them. "Why, um, why are all the control panels dark?"

"Because there's no power, you fucking moron." Sherry said before Claire could talk. "First you have to plug in the capacitor on the other side of the platform, and then you have to open the gates with that console right outside. Jeeze, and I thought adults were supposed to be _smart_."

Liquid was about to go off on the little sewer-rat, and possibly shoot her in the head a few times, but there was no time, so he would have to find a way to take care of everything at once.

"Ok, here's the plan." Liquid said. "I'm gonna go plug in the uh, thing to the um, other thing, and Claire, I need you to start the engines so we can get outa here when I open the gates. Sherry... your mom's dead."

"What?!" The little girl exclaimed.

"Yeah, that red thing tore her to pieces, and no, I don't feel bad, because that's the only thing that stopped her from killing _me_. Oh, and apparently your dad's the red monster, and we're gonna blow him up along with this place, so, um, yeah. Right, now everyone knows their part? Ready, break!"

"Liquid, hold on." Claire said as Sherry sunk into the seat. "Christ, she's just a little girl, and she just lost her parents. Can't you think of anything you can say to make this _easier_ for her?"

Liquid thought about it for a second, and then it like a lightbuld came on above his head as he came up with the perfect thing to help Sherry through this situation. So he knelt down in front of her, took a deep breath, and prepared to be sensitive.

"Sherry, I know this is hard for you, but all is not lost." He said, making Claire smile. "You see... you're adopted."

Claire did a face-palm as the little girl's eyes widened.

"Yeah, so you didn't lose your _real_ parents at all." He continued. "The Birkins were just some schmucks you took you in so they could get a check from the government, but your real parents are still out there... well, atleast your mom is, but she probably doesn't even know your dad's _name_, so I wouldn't worry about him too much."

He patted Sherry on the shoulder before standing up, and then Sherry burst into tears as she ran into the next section of the train. Claire was just standing there with a shocked expression on her face, probably in admiration for his amazing parental skills. So without waiting for her reply, he ran out of the train down to a stairway bridge that would take him to the other side of the platform.

"Yep, that's me." He said to himself with pride. "Mr. Sensitive."

He was just starting across when he had to hold on to the rail to keep from falling as the whole facility shook for a second.

"_Five minutes until detonation_." The female voice suddenly announced.


	31. Ch 31 Race Against Time

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 31: Race Against Time**

Liquid was really starting to sweat now as he ran down the other side of the stairbridge, and thankfully everything he needed seemed to be in one area. This part of the platform was square in shape, and on one side there was one of those capacitor things that Sherry was talking about, while an obvious socket was on the other.

Not wasting any time, he ran over to the storage shelf, grabbed the capacitor, and nearly threw out his back before dropping it on the ground. For such a small thing it sure was heavy, like about two hundred pounds heavy, but there was no time to find a cart or anything to help him move it. So he squated down, wrapped his arms around it, and very slowly lifted with his knees.

"Holy fucking shit!" He groaned once standing all the way up. "Why?! Why does it have to weigh so much?! Why?!"

What started out as a plan to run the thing over to the socket and plug it in, had quickly devolved into a geriatric shuffle. His face was red, his breathing rapid, and then the realization that he only had five minutes in which to do this. But then the worst possible situation happened as something huge dropped down from the sky.

It landed right in front of him, and at first Liquid wasn't sure what he was looking at until he recognized the face. It looked exactly like the green trenchcoated monster that had been chasing them, but somehow it had gotten bigger. It was now even more muscular, and the worst part was its arms. Not only were they fricken huge, but now its hands had been switched out for some of the nastiest claws that he had ever seen.

So what did Liquid do? Why, he did what any good hero would do: He screamed and ran away while dropping the capacitor on the monster's foot. It growled in more annoyance than pain as Liquid tried to figure out some kind of plan; he couldn't run away because there was less than five minutes until this place exploded, but he still had to avoid the monster.

"What do I do?" He asked himself. "What do I do? What do I do?"

Moving to the other side of the room, he found himself against the wall as the monster reached down and picked up the capacitor with one hand. He gave it an annoyed look for a second, and then Liquid hit the floor as it tossed the heavy plug right at him. This time, however, luck was on his side as the capacitor flew right into the socket, causing all kinds of lights to come on not only around the platform, but on the train as well.

"Well, how about that?" Liquid asked as he got up. "Uh... thanks... I gotta go."

He started to casually move toward the stairbridge, but stopped as the monster walked in front of the stairs. It then bent down and used its claw to carve an X into the floor, stood up, pointed at Liquid and finally pointed back to the X. It folded its arms and just stood there as if waiting for him to try something, and this was the perfect time to use an awesome plan... if he had one.

"Hey, Liquid!" A familiar female voice called. "Hey, up here, you piece of shit!"

He turned around and saw a figure standing on one of the walkways far above the platform. It took him a second to figure out who it was, but Annette was dead and Claire was in the train, which only left one other person.

"I landed on that stupid baton, you prick!" Ada yelled as she lifted something big onto her shoulder. "So you get to land on_ this_!"

A burst of smoke and fire came from the weapon on her shoulder, and it was only when he saw the rocket flying toward him that he realized what was happening. There was no time to react, and he was dead if that thing hit him. It came right at him as super high speed, but then he felt the heat as it sailed right over his head and hit the monster in the chest.

The blast threw him forward so that he landed on his face as a cloud of smoke was kicked up, but when it cleared he saw that the monster was gone. It was now scattered around the platform in a dozen pieces, and now his path was clear.

"God fucking damn it!" Ada screamed as she tossed the rocket launcher away. "Are you fucking kidding me?! He was right there?!"

"Yeah, those things sometimes pull a bit!" Liquid called back as he started across the stairbridge. "Thanks for the help, Ada! Bye!"

He could hear her screaming in rage as he crossed the bridge, and then he was too far away to hear it any longer because her voice was really getting annoying. Anyhow, the platform was all powered up, and now all he had to do was open the gate using the console near the cargo elevator he had used to get there. It was really simple to operate, a simple button that caused the gates to open once pressed, and then the whole facility started to shake as the train began to move.

"Liquid, come on!" Claire yelled through the open door. "Come on!"

He ran for it, ignoring all the soreness from recent injuries as he sprinted toward the open door, and dived onto the train right before it entered the tunnel past the gates. He fell to his hands and knees from exhaustion, and a second later fell on his face as the self destruct sequence finally detonated. Everything shook violently as the area outside the train was lit up by streams of fire as the facility exploded, but then the flames died back as the train reached full speed.

"We made it?" Claire asked as everything stopped shaking. "Holy shit, we made it!"

Liquid was starting to relax as he got up to his hands and knees, but then the train shook again, making him eat the floor once again as a new alarm started going off.

"What the hell was that?" Sherry exclaimed.

"Something must be wrong with the train." Claire suggested.

"Alright, I'll take a look." Liquid grumbled as he got to his feet. "Don't worry, girls, the big strong man will handle_ all _the mechanical problems... ungrateful ass bitches, let's see one of _them_ do this after getting whooped by a giant monster."

He continued to grumble to himself as he walked through the connecting doors into the next car, and then he saw what the problem was. It was a big, big problem... with red armored skin, spikes jutting out of its torso... and a large eye on the side that opened long enough to glare at him as the red monster started moving forward.


	32. Ch 32 Game Over

**Liquid's Second Punishment (Dual Shock)**

**Chapter 32: Game Over**

Some of the color drained out of Liquid's face as he turned around and ran back into the front car, making sure to lock and deadbolt it behind him. He wanted to tell the others what he had just seen, but all he could manage to do was jump around and make strange babling noises like on _Courage The Cowardly Dog_.

"_Warning: Viral outbreak detected onboard train_." A voice said through the speakers. "_Passengers are advised to remain calm as the train accelerates to maximum velocity before self-destructing_."

"What?!" Sherry exclaimed as the train started going faster. "The trains's gonna blow up?! This is all your fault, you stupid fucking cop!"

"Yeah, well atleast I'm not _adopted_!" Liquid yelled back.

Sherry started to say something back to this, but instead just folded her arms as she turned away. A second later the door shook from an impact, and the red monster's face appeared in the small window as it roared, making Claire Scream as she jumped into Liquid's arms. Suddenly a bright light shined in through the windows, and it took his eyes a second to adjust, but then he saw that they were no longer in the tunnel.

"_One minute to detonation_." The voice announced. "_Passengers are invited to stick their heads between their legs and kiss their asses goodbye_."

They were outside in the open, and now the train was moving so fast that it shook from side to side, just barely staying on its rails. The door shook again from impact, this time denting inward, and it was then that Liquid came up with a plan so dangerous and stupid that it might've been just crazy enough to work.

"We gotta jump!" He yelled. "Children first."

He then picked Sherry up, and her scream was cut off by the wind when he tossed her out the still open side door. Claire shook her head and tried to get away when he came for her, but there was nowhere to go. He wrapped his arms around her, and the door to the next car was knocked out of its frame just as they jumped.

They hit the ground hard, becoming separated as they rolled and bounced across the landscape, and then finally came to a stop as the train exploded off in the distance. It was over... he had won, and now all he had to do was check on Claire. So he rolled over, and suddenly everything was different. He was on longer laying in the dirt next to the train tracks, but on the concrete driveway in front of his apartment. His police uniform was nowhere to be found, replaced by the bathrobe and slippers that he had been wearing, while Claire and Sherry were nowhere to be found.

He was still sore as he got to his feet, and his hands were shaking a little from the adreanaline rush, but he was back home and safe... until he heard a slow clapping sound, and turned to see Xing Li applauding him from sitting on a nearby bench.

"Not bad, Liquid." He said as he stopped clapping. "Not bad at all. I tell you, I thought you were hosed when the zombies cornered you in the dark room, and the way you got Claire Redfield to work with you was just _priceless_."

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Liquid replied angrily. "You know, if you like these punishments so much, why don't you go into one sometime. It'd be fun... just you and me... you without your powers... and me with a hammer."

Xing just smirked at him while shaking his head, and then he got up to stretch while yawning. Liquid tensed up out of reflex as Xing walked up to him, but then his enemy offered him a cigerette, which Liquid eagerly took along with a light.

"You know, these punishments are for your own good." Xing continued. "You're also not the only author I'm doing this to. My intent is to make degenerates like you see the error of your ways, or atleast die in a way that amuses me. Liquid, you don't seem to understand that with the powers of an author comes the responsibility of managing the realities that you create... not just jerking off the universe like that _Q_ guy on _Star Trek_."

"Blow me, Xing." Liquid replied as he blew smoke in his face. "I can't stop you from doing this to me, but I passed this latest test of yours, so for now... get the fuck off my lawn."

Xing smiled and chuckled a bit as he turned to walk away, and Liquid sighed with relief as he realized that he really was safe for the time being.

"Enjoy your victory, Liquid." He said as he headed down the sidewalk. "I'll be seeing you again soon."


End file.
